Man Attempts to Smuggle Diamonds into Israel Worth $200,000
Suspicious agents caught a Georgian man with rough diamonds worth about $200,000, after searching through his luggage.
The Ben Gurion International Airport’s Department of Customs had taken away diamonds worth over NIS 700,000. Unit officers then arrested the Georgian man who took responsibility for the diamonds and tried to smuggle the precious stones into Israel. After being taken to the Magistrate’s court in Ramla the suspect was released under specific circumstances.
Tangis Kikinashvili, the suspect, picked up his suitcase after landing in Israel and passed through the green custom lane, which meant nothing to declare, but raised suspicions of the drug and customs officers. When the customs agents finally opened the luggage, they were left in shock to reveal a large amount of rough diamonds.
After being taken in to Ben Gurion Airport for questioning by the Department of Customs, Kikinashvili had confessed about knowing of the law which required a fee for responsibilities put to customs on particular goods. Kikinashvili had also estimated the value of the diamonds to be around $200,000.
Conversely, the customs unit that are investigating the case claim the worth of the diamonds to be much more than the amount the suspect had estimated. An electronic check done on the man found that he is not part of the Stock Exchange and thus forbidden to trade diamonds in the country.
Moreover, the diamonds had been discovered to be part of an offense committed against the Kimberly Treaty of 2002, which is a worldwide treaty intended to abolish the occurrence of ‘conflict diamonds‘ or ‘blood diamonds‘.