Armenian State Revenue Committee foils smuggling of $550,000 worth shipment of cocaine from Brazil

YEREVAN, 21 November. /ARKA/. Following a tip-off from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the anti-smuggling department of Armenia's State Revenue Committee seized a shipment of cocaine worth more than half a million US dollars from a citizen of the Republic of South Africa at Zvartnots airport.

The South African citizen, named J.M., arrived at Zvartnots airport on a São Paulo-Doha-Yerevan flight. The drugs were found in his abdomen after he was asked to undergo an X-ray scan.

In order to remove the said foreign bodies from his body, the citizen was transported to Armenia Medical Centre, where 117 cylindrical packets containing white powdery masses resembling cocaine were extracted from his body. Their total weight was 1,620 grams.

According to the State Revenue Committee, the market value of the found particularly large mass of drugs exceeds 550,000 USD.

J.M. was arrested and handed over to the anti-smuggling department. In order to identify possible recipients of drugs in Armenia, operational and investigative measures were carried out. As a result, two citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran were detained in a hotel in Yerevan. They were also handed over to the anti-smuggling department.

The Main Department for Investigation of Economic Crimes and Smuggling of the Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case on charges of drug smuggling and applied to the court for arrest of all three suspects. The court granted the motion to arrest the suspects.-0-