Five, including foreign citizen, arrested for connections with “criminal underworld”, violence

Employees of the Georgian Central Police Department’s unit for combating organised crime have arrested five individuals, including a foreign citizen, in capital Tbilisi and the Black Sea city of Batumi for connections with “criminal underworld” and violence, the state body said on Friday.

The Interior Ministry said the investigation had established a foreign citizen working for a  construction company in Batumi had appealed to a “criminal authority” to resolve a financial dispute and “in order to receive material benefits”.

A “thief-in-law trial” was arranged in the city for resolving the dispute, where one of the shareholders of the company was threatened with death, physically assaulted and ordered by the “criminal authority” to pay $75,000.

The state body also said members of the “criminal underworld” “systematically contacted” the victim and demanded payment of the money.

Law enforcement seized mobile phones used by the alleged offenders to communicate with each other and a “thief-in-law” abroad during the search of the criminal group members’ residential houses.

The crimes are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.