Contraband in Modern Georgian Law — Article 214
The act colloquially known as contraband no longer exists as a separate article in the current Georgian Criminal Code: the historical norms were consolidated, and today the basis of this charge is Article 214 — violation of the rules associated with the movement of goods across the customs border of Georgia. This page explains every part of that article — from the basic composition to the aggravated forms — and the qualification boundaries on which the defence case is built and fought. The term 'contraband' lives on in everyday speech, and its legal substance is precisely this norm.
The Basic Composition — Large Amount and the Forms of Evasion
Under the first part of Article 214, punishable is the transfer or importation across the customs border of Georgia of an item moving in a large amount, committed by circumventing customs control or secretly from it, by the deceptive use of a document or means of identification, or by entering false data in a customs declaration. For this act the law provides a fine or deprivation of liberty for a term of 3 to 5 years. Two groups of elements are distinguished in the composition: the quantitative attribute — a large amount, whose thresholds are defined in the note to the article — and the method: circumvention of control, secret transfer, a deceptive document or false declaration. For the defence both groups must be checked separately: does the prosecution's evidence describe exactly the method listed in the part, and does the seized or transported property reach the threshold of a large amount.
An Especially Large Amount and Special Objects
The second part aggravates the same act where committed in an especially large amount — a fine or deprivation of liberty for a term of 5 to 7 years. The third part separately regulates the transfer or importation, in violation of the rules, of a monument of cultural heritage or other cultural heritage recorded in the manner established by Georgian legislation, as well as jewellery made of precious metal or scrap thereof — a fine or deprivation of liberty for 4 to 7 years. The fourth part is built on the most specific objects: poisonous, toxic, radioactive or explosive substances, weapons, explosive devices, firearms, materials or devices that may be used to create weapons of mass destruction, strategically important raw materials — for this the law provides deprivation of liberty for a term of 5 to 8 years.