Georgian police arrest 3 for extortion, property damage in Kvemo Kartli region

The Georgian Interior Ministry on Thursday said its law enforcement officers had arrested three individuals for group assistance in extortion of a “large amount of money” and attempts to damage property in the country’s southeastern Kvemo Kartli region.

The Ministry said its investigation established the offenders had fulfilled orders from a member of the “criminal underworld” to demand payment of large sums of money from residents in eastern Georgia’s Marneuli municipality, and threatening to kill them and damage their property in case of refusal.

Following a refusal by one of the victims, one of the arrested individual, allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail with the aim of destroying a car in the yard of one of the victim's houses, while the offenders also left a threatening letter along with three cartridges in the yard of another victim, the body noted.

Law enforcement officers seized the cartridges as evidence in the latter case, with the crime punishable by up to nine years of imprisonment.