Armenia thwarts large-scale drug smuggling attempt
Officers of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC) have foiled an attempt to smuggle some 1,600 grams of cocaine into the country as part of collaboration with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
In a statement on Thursday, SRC said its officers found the drugs after the customs inspection of a citizen of the South African Republic who arrived in Yerevan from Sao Paulo via Doha.
There was suspicion that the man, identified by his initials as J. M., had hidden drug packages in his body.
The suspect was taken from Zvartnots Airport to Yerevan’s Armenia Republican Medical Center where 117 oval capsules containing cocaine and weighing a total of 1,620 grams were removed from his body. The market value of the seized narcotics exceeds $550,000.
The South African citizen, as well as two Iranian nationals involved in the drug smuggling scheme, has been arrested as part of a criminal probe launched by Armenia's Investigative Committee.