YEREVAN. - There was no point in staging, Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Hermine Naghdalyan told Armenian News – NEWS.am after the Supreme Body session of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) today, referring to the opinion circulated in the social networks and media that the neutralization of the criminal association by the Armenian National Security Service (NSS) on Wednesday was staged.   

“There was no point in staging. In my opinion, our relevant authorities carried out a productive work: this wasn’t a work of one or two days, but a profound one. It’s very important that our relevant authorities managed to carry out this work  without negative consequences,” Naghdalyan said, adding that it’s necessary to thank the NSS and the police for doing such work.

On November 25, the NSS neutralized in Yerevan a criminal association suspected of a grave crime. According to the NSS press-service, they received an operative information, according to which the citizen of Armenia Arthur Valerik Vardanyan,1981, who resided in Spain since 1997 and has temporarily resided in Armenia since 2015, set up and managed a criminal association with the view of committing grave and particularly grave crimes. The association included 19 citizens of Armenia, who were mostly unemployed.

For the aforementioned criminal aims, the criminal association illegally acquired a large quantity of weapons and ammunition that were hidden in a house in Yerevan’s Nork district rented beforehand for that purpose.

On November 25, during searches conducted jointly with the police, different types of automatic rifles, pistols, grenade launchers, grenades, explosives and explosive devices, communications equipment, and other types of ammunition were found.

The leaders and participants of the criminal association have been detained. 

Criminal case has been launched in the NSS Investigative Department under articles 223 and 235 of Armenia’s Criminal Code. Investigation is underway.