Georgia’s Interior Ministry detained 42 people on drug charges in a police operation across the country over the previous 24 hours, deputy interior minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze said at a briefing.[1] Those held include Georgian citizens and foreign nationals.[1] According to the deputy minister, most of those detained are large-scale drug dealers, while the rest are accused of illegally buying and keeping drugs in large quantities.[2]

Under a court order, investigators carried out covert measures including audio and video recording, which they said confirmed that most of those held were involved in a drug-selling scheme.[1] The dealers left drugs in set places for later sale and sent buyers the information through an internet application, the deputy minister said.[1] Police seized especially large batches of various drugs intended for sale on the black market, including heroin, cocaine, alpha-PVP, buprenorphine, Suboxone, methadone, ketamine, mephedrone, MDMA and marijuana.[1] The crimes carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison or life imprisonment.[1]

The interior ministry’s press service distributed footage of special forces storming drug dealers’ homes.[2] The Interior Ministry says it carries out such raids systematically and had detained more than 1,500 people on drug charges in the previous two months, a significant part of them drug dealers.[2]