The main smuggling routes in Shida Kartli have allegedly been restored since the Ergneti black market was closed last June.

One police official was arrested and several others dismissed on March 13 in the Shida Kartli region, which borders breakaway South Ossetia, after allegations flew regarding involvement in smuggling goods from Russia via South Ossetia.

Following the arrest of Beso Giorgashivli, the chief of police of Kareli, a town in Shida Kartli, President Saakashvili convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council on March 13 and announced that police chiefs from all the districts in this region should be dismissed and instructed the Interior Ministry and General Prosecutor’s Office “to precisely probe into [the police officials’] activity” in Shida Kartli.

“It seems that a clan, the 'Gori [the main town in Shida Kartli] police mafia’ is established there,” Saakashvili said while addressing the Security Council.

Aleksandre Sukhitashvili, the chief of the Shida Kartli police, and his deputies were also dismissed. In an interview with Rustavi 2 television Sukhitashvili said “I have never had any links with smuggling. The investigation will show everything.”

President Saakashvili also said while addressing the Security Council that he has recently ordered law enforcers to probe into the alleged activities of police officials in smuggling.

“I convened you to talk about the investigation which I ordered to be carry out… I think the situation with contraband is alarming in [Shida] Kartli… the chiefs of the police departments of the local districts in [the Shida Kartli region], directly, or indirectly, are taking part in the restoration of channels for smuggling,” Saakashvili told members of the Security Council during a part of the session that was broadcasted by local television stations.

Political opponents of the government, as well as some media outlets, have been speculating recently that smuggling routes were restored in Shida Kartli region after the authorities closed down the major, notorious black market in Ergneti, between Gori and Tskhinvali, last June.

One of the main reasons behind the military clashes which took place in South Ossetia last August, the Georgian government argued, was the pressure that the South Ossetian authorities and various smuggling gangs were submitted to after the closure of the Ergneti market.

Last summer, when the local newspaper in Gori 'the People’s Newspaper' published an article alleging that the Shida Kartli administration and the local police chiefs continued to participate in illegal trade and smuggling via South Ossetia, the editor of this newspaper was arrested for alleged drug trade. He was released only after major protests from human rights groups ensued.

Along with Sukhitashvili, ex-chief of the Shida Kartli police, Mikheil Kareli the Governor of Shida Kartli region has also been accused by his political opponents and some media sources of patronizing the smuggling in the region.

But Saakashvili said on March 13 that Mikhail Kareli is “an honest person” and instructed him to closely cooperate with the Interior Minister and General Prosecutor in fighting contraband in the region.

He also instructed the Interior Ministry to set up special units in order “to control” all the possible routes in the region used by smugglers.