Georgia catches suspect of robbery of century

The Georgian interior ministry said Saturday the South Caucasus country had detained a key suspect of the Robbery of Century theft in Ordu of neighboring Turkey. "The officers of the constitutional security department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia have solved the case of robbery that took place in Ordu, Turkey, as a result of which gold and jewelry in large quantities were stolen," the ministry said in a statement. "As a result of operative activities the head of organized criminal group, Vakhtang Purtseladze, was detained and part of stolen jewelry was seized by Georgian law enforcers in Tbilisi and Qutaisi. Currently operative measures are being taken in order to detain others involved in the criminal case mentioned above and to find and seize the rest of stolen jewelery," the statement added. Cigarette butts left in the 8-meter-long underground tunnel dug by the thieves led police in both Turkey and Georgia suspect about the nationality of the perpetrators of the theft which Turkish media had described as "Robbery of Century", in which the thieves beat the alarming system of the jewelery shop to empty its 6-kilogram hoard of gold jewelery and coins. The thieves dug the tunnel from an adjacent building right into their target shop and when the alarming system finally worked they had already left with their trophies.