Recently Judge of the National Court of Spain Fernando Grande-Marlaska ordered the detention of 18 out of the 21 alleged members of the Georgian mafia, arrested on Monday during Operation "Java". Head of the Spanish group Kakhaber Shushanashvili was among those arrested; this is a 38-year-old "thief in law", brother of Lasha Shushanashvili, who is considered the leader of the organization, and a 35-year-old "thief in law" Koba Akhvlediani.
By decision of the judge, three detainees with Katerina Mierkova among them were released - mistress of Kaha and mother of two of his twin sons; she was released on bail of 20 thousand euros. Originally, it was reported that 24 people had been detained in Spain, but as sources in the investigating authorities explained, the three arrested had been detained in other countries on a warrant issued by Spain.
The operation "Java" was held in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy, thus almost the entire top of the Georgian criminal group, including the "thieves in law" and "alpha dogs" in 6 countries was arrested. All the detainees are suspected of conspiracy to commit murder, bribery, money laundering, forgery, extortion, blackmail, illegal possession of arms and armed robbery.
According to the judge's ruling, the Georgian criminal group was founded in Spain in 2005. Its leaders are "thieves in law" Kakhaber Shushanashvili, and his deputy Zviad Darsadze, reporting directly to Koba Shemazashvili nicknamed Tsitsila; he in turn is linked to Lasha Shushanashvili, who has become the leader of the clan after arrest of Zachary Kalashov named Shakro-young.
It is noted that the organization has a strict hierarchical structure and extensive network of branches in majority of European countries, each of which has a "collective fund" created for deposits replenished by the leaders in the field. The main "obshchak, whereto income from all regions was coming, was administered by Kaha Shushanashvili.
In particular, it is known that in Austria the group’s interests were represented by "thieves in law" Gotcha Antipov, nicknamed Alfason, and Koba Akhvlediani. In Italy, the vise of Shushanashvili brothers was a 34-year-old "thief in law" Varlam Kukhianidze, nicknamed Vatiya, he was released from prison № 7 in Tbilisi last year.
Subsequently, the money obtained by criminal means were laundered through the controlled businesses, invested in low-transparent areas of business, and spent on the needs of the group members. In addition, the collective fund was regularly used to support Georgian thieves in law - Jaran, Pata and Bego, serving sentences in a Belgian prison.
In order to legalize his traveling in the EU Kakhaber Shushanashvili used fake documents in the name of Nicholas Rostov, and entered into a sham marriage with the woman from Barcelona Caparros Maria Jose Alonso by paying her a fee of $ 5000.
As Shushanashvili brothers had been conflicting with the "thieves in law" close to Tariel Oniani, they declared a hunt for his supporters hiding in Europe. In December last year in Holland Kaha Shushanashvili, Koba Shemazashvili, and Zviad Darsadze inflicted reprisals of the "thieves in law" George Gurchiani and Irakli Pipia, who were part of a clan Oniani-Jangveladze. They were accused of presence at the "thieves' meeting" at Klyazminskoe reservoir in July 2008. As a result Gurchiani and Pipia were badly beaten and declared "not thieves."
"Thief in law" Merab Jangveladze who still remained at large continued to rally "thieves in law", displeased by Lasha Shushanashvili’s policy, thus he began to pose a real threat to the top of the Tbilisi clan. According to operating data, Kakhaber Shushanashvili planed and prepared performers of the physical elimination of Jangveladze and the “thief in law” Vladimir Janashia, nicknamed Lado who was close to him. On January 15, 2010 in Nice the group’s member Kahi Shushanashvili was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of Jangveladze and Janashia.
