Georgia announced detaining 17 individuals and launching criminal proceedings against 24 legal entities in connection with an alleged illegal psychotropic drug trade scheme that generated more than GEL 53.8 million [about USD 20 million], with authorities warning of a further crackdown on “prescription drug abuse in the country.”
At a June 24 briefing, Deputy Head of the Division of the Investigative Service of the Ministry of Finance, Guga Tavberidze, said charges without detention had also been filed against 11 individuals who “cooperated with the investigation and facilitated the exposure of the large-scale criminal scheme,” while three individuals remain in hiding and will be placed on a wanted list.
The charges carry prison sentences of between nine and eleven years under Articles 192 (illegal entrepreneurial activities) and 194 (money laundering) of Georgia’s Criminal Code.
Among those accused are “former senior officials of the Regulatory Agency for Medical and Pharmaceutical Activities,” who, according to Tavberidze, “for years, acting in their personal interests and abusing their official powers, facilitated the operation of the criminal scheme and acted against the public interest.”
The investigation revealed that “a large-scale network, which contributed to the spread of so-called ‘prescription drug addiction,’ operated in the country from 2018 to 2025. The process was organized by the heads of companies importing psychotropic medications.”
Tavberidze said that to conceal the criminal activity, “medications from the importing companies were documented in the name of fictitious pharmaceutical companies, which were pre-registered to individuals affiliated with them,” and that the medications were in fact sold “without any prescriptions and relevant permits at substantially inflated prices throughout the country in facilities that did not possess pharmacy status.”
According to the investigation, revenue generated through the illegal sale of psychotropic medications amounted to GEL 53,833,723. Tavberidze said that, to legalize the proceeds, “a substantial amount of funds was disguised as salaries and dividends.”
He added that the accused “acquired a significant amount of real estate and movable properties,” and these assets “have been frozen, from which the damage will be compensated in the future.”
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