The Tbilisi City Court fully shared the evidence presented by the Prosecutor’s Office and found ten persons guilty of legalizing illegal income and illegally importing narcotics into Georgia by an organized group.

The evidence examined at the trial established that in 2022, a foreign citizen created an organized criminal group in order to legalize illegal and unsubstantiated income obtained from the sale of narcotic substances.

The head of the organized group operated a restaurant and nightclub business in Tbilisi, under the name of other individuals, at three different addresses. The purpose of the club business was to sell narcotic substances and to cover and launder the proceeds of illicit origin. The members of the organized group artificially increased the income received by the aforementioned clubs, in particular, in October 2023, in the relevant documents the accused showed as if they received 3,000,000 GEL of income in just 5 days, thus disguising the origin of the proceeds from the sale of narcotic substances. Part of the money was transferred to the bank account of one of the members of the criminal group at different periods, who transferred funds abroad and carried out cryptocurrency exchange operations.

Also, members of the organized group systematically purchased various types of cryptocurrencies with the funds received from the sale of narcotic substances, and the leader of the organized group cashed out the money received from the subsequent sale.

The head of the organized group, on behalf of the company he founded and other members of the criminal group, purchased residential apartments, commercial premises and land worth more than 2,000,000 GEL in Tbilisi and various territories of Georgia. With the funds received from the sale of narcotic substances, expensive cars worth more than 1,000,000 GEL were also purchased in the names of the members of the organized group.

The investigation conducted by the Prosecutor"s Office also established that on June 10, 2024, a person criminally associated with members of an organized group imported watermelons from the Islamic Republic of Iran into Georgia through the customs checkpoint in the village of Kerachmughanlo, Marneuli District, in which boxes there was placed in hiding places an extremely large amount of illegally purchased and stored narcotic substance - dried marijuana (25 400 g), which was seized as a result of a search by the investigation agency. The said cargo was sent to the name of one of the members of the organized group, who was trying to arrange documents for the purpose of transporting the cargo, so that the said narcotic substance could be sold by the organized group according to the above-mentioned scheme.

Law enforcement officers detained the accused on June 14 and 15, 2024.

The Tbilisi City Court found the defendants guilty under Article 194, Part 3, Subparagraphs “a” and “c” (legalization of illegal income, committed by an organized group, accompanied by receipt of an especially large amount of income) and Article 262, Part 4, Subparagraphs “a” and “b” (illegal import of a particularly large amount of narcotics into Georgia, committed by an organized group) and sentenced two persons to 18 years in prison each, one person to 15 years and 6 months, and the remaining defendants to 16 years in prison each.

The court also fully agreed with the prosecution"s request and eight vehicles worth over 1,000,000 GEL, five real estate properties worth up to 4,000,000 GEL were seized from the members of the organized group, and up to 40,000 GEL seized as a result of the search, in favor of the state.