At the beginning of July 2021, the Department for Combating Smuggling of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia received operational information that a transnational organized criminal group engaged in the illegal transportation of heroin from Iran to the EU countries plans to transport a large consignment of heroin in transit through the territories of Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine.
Agreements were reached with the police of Ukraine and Georgia on joint round-the-clock operational-search activities. The employees of the Armenian National Security Service were involved in the operative-search work.
Employees of the Border Directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russia in Armenia and the regional office of the US Department of Justice Department of Justice, located in Tbilisi, were also involved in the implementation of the event.
During the 20-day operational-search event, a representative of the anti-smuggling department of the Armenian State Revenue Office was sent to Georgia and then to Ukraine. A truck with 20 tons of refractory bricks arrived from the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Republic of Armenia on July 4, 2021. According to the operational information received, he was supposed to carry heroin.
With the operational escort of representatives of the law enforcement agencies of Armenia, Georgia, and then Ukraine, the truck headed through the territories of Armenia and Georgia to the port of Poti, and from there by ship to the port of Chornomorsk in Ukraine, from where, upon arrival, the vehicle headed to Kyiv.
Two Turkish citizens who are members of this group rented a warehouse in Kyiv. It was to this warehouse that the goods were delivered, unloaded and stored as a cache for drugs after customs clearance. On July 22, Ukrainian law enforcement officers, with the participation of representatives of the Anti-Smuggling Department of the State Revenue Committee and the Georgian Police, entered a warehouse in Kyiv, where they found 1164 packages of heroin with a total weight of 368 kg, transported from Iran to Ukraine. On the same day, the mentioned Turkish citizens were detained in Kiev. The discovered drugs were planned to be sent in small batches to the countries of the European Union. Within the framework of this criminal case, a few days later, another Turkish citizen born in 1948 was detained in Kyiv.
The value of the drug discovered on the black market is about US $ 45 million.