BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 20. Members of an organized criminal group consisting of four Iranian citizens engaged in drug trafficking and sale in Azerbaijan were detained as a result of a special operation carried out by police officers, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan told Trend.
According to the press service, on the basis of operational information received by the ministry’s Main Department for Combating Drugs, during the special operation, Iranian citizens - students of the Medical University, temporarily residing in Baku, Ata Maleki, his brother Pouya, as well as Ali Maleki and Shishen Maleki were detained.
With them, as well as in the house where they lived, about one kilogram of narcotic drugs, a large amount of money received from the sale of drugs, and electronic scales were found.
Heybat Hasanov, suspected of drug trafficking in collusion with Iranian citizens, was also detained and handed over to the investigators, and over two kilograms of marijuana was found with him.
During the preliminary investigation, the detainees said that they organized an online sale of drugs in Baku and regions of Azerbaijan under the instruction of persons named Araz and Hussein, whose identities are being established by the investigation.
To this end, members of the group established a drug network and tried to attract mainly young people to this in exchange for various false promises.
On this fact, a criminal case was initiated against these persons under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan and a measure of restraint in the form of arrest was chosen.
Operative measures are ongoing to detain other members of this drug network, both inside the country and abroad.
Over the past five years, 4,470 criminal groups have been neutralized, and nearly 4,000 firearms and nine tons of drugs have been confiscated from illegal circulation by Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies.