The vehicles were then transported to Russia and the republics of Central Asia, especially Kazakhstan. This scam grew in scope when the militias of Georgian warlords such as Jaba Iosseliani and Tenguiz Kitovani, who deposed Zviad Ghamsakhurdia, the elected president, in December 1992, moved in and transformed it into a large-scale triangular trade by plugging it into the arms trade. Paradoxically, the arms were then sold to Osset and Abkhazian separatists the very forces the militias were supposed to be fighting. Ajaria, and its free trading port of Batumi, is under the iron rule of Aslan Abassije, another warlord. Abassije strengthened Ajaria's relations with criminal organizations, especially Turkish ones.
Turkish mobsters are to blame for the introduction of coca crops in the region.
In order to maintain his grip over Ajaria, Abassije is striving to put the brakes on economic development, and that includes stopping the projected rehabilitation of the pipeline linking Baku, Azerbaijan, to the Ajar ports of Batumi and Poti. Abassije is boycotting all efforts aimed at integrating Ajaria into the Western economy. Instead, he is banking on the development of the informal economy and of criminal activities such as extortion. Aslan Abassije is the last of the warlords who imposed their rule on Georgia when it was torn apart by separatist conflicts. Once they had permitted current president Edward Shevardnadze to take a firm grip on power in March 1992, Moscow let him get rid of them one by one.