Georgian Police Helps France Detain Crime Bosses

French police arrested 22 organized crime suspects in Lyon on December 10, including 10 Georgian citizens, in cooperation with Interpol, Europol, and the Belgian and Georgian police.

Vladimer Bortsvadze, Director of Central Criminal Police Department of Georgian Interior Ministry said at a news briefing yesterday that the detainees were of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian origin, and that the two Georgians – Mindia Nizharadze and Revaz Seskuria – are criminal bosses or so-called thieves-in-law.

According to Bortsvadze, suspects were detained as a part of a police operation codenamed “VORS 69-01” and will be charged according to the French legislation under articles of 311, 321, 324 and 450 of the Criminal Code, for repeated group theft, storage and sale of illegally obtained items, money laundering and criminal gang membership.

Earlier this year, the Georgian police has helped local law enforcement bodies detain two Georgians in Spain, 14 in France and 23 in Greece.

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