Georgia’s Interior Ministry said on 10 June that law enforcement had arrested 119 people on drug-related charges during a nationwide operation over the previous 48 hours, including 49 suspected drug dealers. The detainees include Georgian and foreign nationals and face penalties ranging up to 20 years in prison or life imprisonment under Georgian law, according to the ministry.
Announcing the results, Tbilisi Police Chief Vazha Siradze said officers seized particularly large quantities of drugs and psychotropic substances during searches of suspects, their vehicles and residences, as well as from locations identified through the investigation. Substances named in the briefing include heroin, cocaine, alpha-PVP, methadone, mephedrone, buprenorphine and others.
What police reported seizing
Siradze said searches also turned up materials used for packaging narcotic substances, money allegedly obtained from drug sales, and a large number of firearms and ammunition. He added that officers conducted multiple controlled purchases of drugs and made covert audio and video recordings of the transactions.
“Evidence obtained through investigative actions establishes that the detained drug dealers were systematically selling narcotic substances to citizens in exchange for money,” Siradze said. He described the ministry’s stated fight against drug-related and organised crime as continuing across the country.
The ministry did not publish a full list of detainees, court dates or the precise weight of each seizure in its initial statement. Further charges and pre-trial proceedings typically follow under Georgia’s criminal procedure after arrests of this scale.
Pattern of recent operations
The latest operation fits a series of large anti-drug sweeps over the past year. In January, police said they arrested 88 people on drug-dealing and related charges. In February, authorities reported 97 arrests in operations targeting organised crime, including 81 people accused of drug dealing or connected offences.
At the end of 2025, the ministry said more than 5,000 people had been arrested for drug-related offences over seven months, including about 2,000 linked to dealing. Officials have framed the campaigns as part of a sustained enforcement push; defence lawyers and civil-society groups have at times questioned search practices and proportionality of sentences, though those debates sit outside this specific announcement.
For residents and expats, the figures illustrate how actively drug laws are enforced in Georgia. Possession and trafficking carry serious penalties; foreign nationals arrested in such operations are subject to the same criminal process and may face deportation procedures after any conviction, depending on status and court outcomes.
