Azerbaijan Corruption Scandal: Top Officials Arrested in Smuggling Investigation

Ruslan Eyyubov

A major anti-corruption effort in Azerbaijan has resulted in the arrest of several high-ranking officials and well-known business people, including Ruslan Eyyubov, the nephew of Beyler Eyyubov, who for a long time headed the Presidential Security Service. The Anti-Corruption General Directorate, which is under the Prosecutor General, is leading the investigation, which centers on a huge cigarette smuggling operation worth over 5 million manats.

Ruslan Eyyubov, who is the head of the Baku Hovsan International Trade Sea Port and leads the NB Group (which specializes in the chemical industry), was taken into custody as part of a larger effort to stop organized crime. He is now facing serious charges, such as smuggling by an organized group, selling and storing tobacco products without excise stamps, and abusing his power. A court has already ordered that the businessman be held for two months before his trial.

The alleged criminal network is quite large, involving the illegal transport of tobacco products from the United Arab Emirates and Iran. Apparently, these goods were smuggled into Azerbaijan through the Hovsan Port and illegal docks in the Garadagh-Alat area in order to avoid customs taxes. The operation has apprehended a wide range of suspects, from port directors and customs inspectors to ship captains and high-ranking members of the State Border Service.

Rashad Dashdamirov, a senior port official, and Farid Usubov, the son of former Lieutenant-General Jabrayil Usubov, were among those previously taken into custody in this case. These arrests show a big change, since the suspects are closely related to some of the most powerful families in the country's security and customs organizations. Ruslan Eyyubov is the brother of Major-General Hasan Eyyubov, who was recently removed from his job at the State Customs Committee.

Because of his family ties to Beyler Eyyubov, who was the head of the President's Security Service for many years before taking on a new job earlier this year, the case has gotten a lot of attention from the public. The legal results for those involved are still up in the air as the investigation goes on, but the large number of arrests across multiple state agencies shows that there is a strong effort to stop smuggling routes that have been around for a while and make important people answer for their actions.