Assistant to the Azerbaijani military attache in the United States is arrested for gold smuggling in Turkey

BAKU (Tass) — Gahraman Mammadov, senior adviser to the Azerbaijani military attache in the United States, was detained by Turkish law enforcement agencies on suspicion of gold smuggling, a criminal case was opened against him at home and an arrest sentence was passed. This was reported by the State Security Service (SSS) of Azerbaijan.

According to the ministry, “substantial suspicions were revealed” that Mammadov, in collusion with another Azerbaijani citizen Anar Gasimov and foreign citizens, participated in the smuggling of gold from the United Arab Emirates to Turkey. Using a diplomatic passport, he carried gold bars brought from the UAE by Gasimov through the customs border of the two countries without declaration, but was detained by Turkish law enforcement agencies when he was heading to a hotel in Istanbul by taxi.

“During the inspection of the bag that was with Mammadov, 70 kg of gold bars with a total value of more than 10.220 million manats (more than $6 million) were found and confiscated.”

The report notes that during the investigation, another package with gold bars weighing 14 kg was found in the storage of the Istanbul airport, which also did not pass the customs declaration procedure.

According to information, within the framework of the criminal case being investigated by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan, a criminal case has been opened against Mammadov under a number of articles of the country’s criminal code providing for liability for smuggling and abuse of official authority, the Baku Military Court has chosen a preventive measure in the form of arrest against him.