Georgian, US law enforcers detain Turkish citizen in Georgia for transnational arms trafficking
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A Turkish citizen has been detained in Tbilisi who tried to transfer firearms components bought in the US to Turkey via Georgia, the Georgian Interior Ministry says.
The ministry states that the suspect was detained thanks to the cooperation of Georgia and US law enforcement agencies.
The detainee and his accomplices bough parts of firearms in the US and sent them to Georgia via the Georgian Post service. The parcel sent by them to one of the individuals in Georgia contained illegal items instead of the items indicated,” the Interior Ministry says.
The detainee, identified as I.I. born in 1976, faces eight to 11 years in prison.
The ministry says that he was detained on March 15 while driving in Tbilisi.
Georgia’s law enforcers found and seized an extremely large amount of ammunition, military weapons and explosive materials from several locations in Georgia, including the capital. All explosives, weapons and ammunition were in working condition. The arms were discovered buried in the woods near Gori town and Norio village, (32km from Tbilisi) in eastern Georgia.
Georgia is intensifying its fight against illegal firearms and encouraging citizens to hand over arms voluntarily after Georgian police seized "especially large amount” of illegal weapons in the past two months.
Thousands of bullets and almost a hundred weapons unlawfully possessed by locals have been handed over to Georgian police in the latest voluntary relinquish of arms.
Georgian police officers have detected an illegal cache of weapons and armament in the country’s south.
Georgia and the United States are in talks for signing a bilateral extradition treaty in a bid to "bring criminals to justice more effectively and efficiently", the Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia said on Friday.