Armenian officers find escaped Iranian detainee, revenue committee says

Armenia’s State Revenue Committee said its Anti-Smuggling Department and Shengavit police found Iranian detainee M. M. at around 23:30 Yerevan time on 11 November, after he escaped on 6 November.

The committee said M. M. had been held by court order after his arrest on suspicion of drug smuggling. After officers found him, they took him to the Anti-Smuggling Department and then to Nubarashen Penitentiary Institution.

Inspection and escape

The committee said customs officers inspected the truck M. M. operated at around 19:00 Yerevan time on 3 November, after it arrived from Iran. It said they found what it described as a particularly large quantity of narcotic drugs.

M. M. was arrested on reasonable suspicion of drug smuggling and transferred to the Investigative Committee’s Syunik Regional Investigative Department before a court ordered him detained, the revenue committee said.

The committee said he escaped at around 22:00 Yerevan time while covert investigative actions were being carried out in the criminal proceedings. An earlier Shamshyan.com account, cited in a Civic.am article, identified the location as the committee’s administrative building at 10 Isakov Avenue in Yerevan.

In its November 13 clarification, the revenue committee said some earlier media accounts had omitted the result of the joint search. The Investigative Committee separately told Haykakan Zhamanak that M. M. had been found and detained and that criminal proceedings had been initiated concerning the escape.