Armenia confiscates former Karabakh separatist leader’s official state car Drugs charges

The Armenian Investigative Committee has announced that the official state car of Samvel Shahramanyan, former leader of the Karabakh separatists, was confiscated in connection with a drug trafficking investigation.

On June 21, the special forces of the Armenian Interior Ministry forcibly entered the gates of the so-called Karabakh separatists' representative office in Yerevan and towed away Shahramanyan’s official state vehicle, Caliber.Az reports citing the Armenian media.

According to the message, during criminal proceedings in the investigative department of the Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of the Yerevan department of the Investigative Committee, initiated under Part 1 of Article 393 and paragraph 1 of Article 396 of the Armenian Criminal Code (both pertaining to drug trafficking), a Toyota Camry 2.5 (license plate 004 UU 90) was confiscated and taken to a special site. In February 2024, law enforcement officers detained Ashot Danielyan, a bodyguard of Shahramanyan, for two days on suspicion of drug possession and sale.

Previously, two more representatives of the former separatist regime in Karabakh were detained in Armenia on fraud charges. The Armenian Investigative Committee reported that the so-called ex-mayor of Khankendi, David Sargsyan, along with three accomplices, created false documents to register four cars valued at 19.1 million drams ($49,000) in February 2024.