On April 4th, more than 100 suspects were arrested in a joint coordinated action of the Spanish and Georgian Police over charges of organized crime in Barcelona. 25 Georgian citizens were among the arrested persons.

In a public statement, which was released by the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the arrested suspects were charged with robbing residential apartments and with being members of criminal networks. “These members of the criminal groups were choosing apartments in advance, collecting pertinent information about them before robbing them,” the Interior Ministry stated. As a separate development, 41 Georgian citizens have been arrested in Spain for the violation of administrative immigration rules, reports civil.ge.

This has been the third reported case of criminal activity conducted by Georgian citizens in the past month. In March, 8 Georgian citizens were arrested in France and Greece over the same kind of charges. Last year, 12 Georgian citizens were arrested in France and Spain, including two criminal bosses. Germany, Iceland and Sweden are already raising concerns about the criminal activities of Georgian citizens in the Schengen area, and are considering to temporarily suspend the visa-free Regime for Georgia.

On 28 March 2017, the EU decided to put Georgia on the list of third countries whose nationals are exempt from visa requirements. From there on, the visa obligation for citizens of Georgia who hold a biometric passport and want to travel to the Schengen zone for a short-stay was abolished. Ukraine and Moldova are the other Eastern Partnership countries who have a visa-free regime with the EU.