Georgian police seize 5kg cocaine at Tbilisi airport

Two Brazilian citizens have been arrested at the Tbilisi international airport while trying to smuggle up to five kg of cocaine into Georgia, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

The seizure of narcotics came a week after the Interior Ministry announced the "exposing of a new route of drug trafficking" and seized 5.2 kilos of cocaine on separate occasions from two Brazilians, one Ecuadorean and one South African at the Tbilisi international airport.

In another separate case last month, a Lebanese citizen was arrested at the Sarpi border-crossing point while trying to smuggle 7.3 kg of cocaine from Georgia into Turkey.

Another 6.2 kilos of cocaine were seized in January from three Bulgarian citizens who were trying to smuggle the narcotics from Armenia into Georgia, according to a report by the Interior Ministry.

According to the recent International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Georgia is a transit and destination country for illicit drugs produced in other countries.

"The most significant drug trafficking route runs from Afghanistan and Iran through Azerbaijan or Armenia to Georgia, then to destinations in Western Europe, Turkey, and Russia," the report said.

The report, which covered the situation last year, highlighted the seizure of 2.7 metric tons of liquid heroin by the Georgian law enforcement agencies near the port of Batumi in July 2014, which, it said, is "believed to be the largest overland heroin seizure in history." Endi