Police Arrest 44 in Crackdown on ‘Thieves’ World’
Georgian law enforcement authorities detained 44 individuals during a nationwide crackdown on the criminal underworld, the so-called “thieves’ world,” Davit Kiknadze, Director of the Central Criminal Police Department of the Interior Ministry, announced at a May 13 briefing.
Kiknadze said another seven individuals have been charged, some already in prison and others in absentia, including two so-called “thieves-in-law” currently abroad. They face 15 years in prison if convicted.
According to Kiknadze, covert investigative operations revealed that the accused were organizing so-called “thieves’ trials” and issuing “thieves’ rulings.” He said the detainees were contacting “members of the criminal underworld, including so-called thieves-in-law Levan Marghia and Nodar Shukakidze,” who were involved in resolving financial and criminal disputes for “personal gains” and imposing payments on the parties involved. In cases of missed deadlines, they threatened individuals with “physical retaliation or murder.”
Kiknadze also said investigators determined that members of the group, acting according to a pre-arranged plan, targeted individuals in various districts of Tbilisi and forced them to activate loans through internet banking applications against their will, “after which they illegally appropriated large sums of money by transferring the funds to their own accounts.”
He added that authorities seized firearms, mobile phones, and computer equipment as evidence, which the suspects used to communicate with each other and with “thief-in-laws” abroad.
The arrests follow several similar operations in recent months, including an April crackdown that resulted in 44 arrests, a March operation with 72 arrests, a February operation with 45 arrests, a December raid with 49 arrests, and a November operation in which 34 individuals were detained, and one suspect died.
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