11 detained for ‘membership in criminal underworld’ in Georgia’s Shida Kartli

Police have detained 11 individuals for ‘membership in the criminal underworld’ in two cities Gori and Khashuri from Georgia’s Shida Kartli region earlier today.

The Georgian Interior Ministry reported that the detainees ‘were regularly participating in criminal disputes with the instruction of so-called ‘thieves-in-law’ and were extorting cash and expensive cars from citizens.’

Out of 11 arrested individuals, criminal prosecution has been launched against four detainees.

Law enforcers seized two firearms, a vest, ammunition, an illegally obtained car, about 15,000 USD, computers and mobile phones, through which the detainees had contact with each other and with Georgian ‘thieves-in-low' abroad. 

Local TV channel Rustavi 2 reports that one of the detainees is Aleksi Tsetskhladze whose brother was arrested earlier this year in July for membership in the criminal underworld while in Khashuri police detained Nodar Mumladze whose father was a member of the criminal underworld killed in 1993.

The crime - membership in the criminal underworld - is punishable from three to 10 years.