On July 16, by order of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Safar Mehdiyev was dismissed from the position of chairman of the Azerbaijan State Customs Committee. The reasons for Mehdiyev's removal were not specified in the document.

Mehdiyev was the chairman of the Customs Committee from April 23, 2018. His dismissal comes a day after the State Security Service announced the arrest of high-ranking officials of this institution.

The State Security Service of Azerbaijan (SSP) released official information about the arrests at the State Customs Committee. Customs generals are among those arrested.

As a result of investigations, Khalilov Ehtiram, who works as the director of "Azerterminalcomplex" union under the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, intentionally used his service powers contrary to the interests of the service in order to gain an illegal advantage in the performance of his official duties. "By violating the rules for the organization and implementation of customs auctions established by law, by ensuring the assessment and sale of goods and vehicles that have been transferred to the state property below their real value, according to the agreement reached in advance with individual persons, causing significant damage to the interests of the state protected by law, for these illegal actions, the reasonable subordinate suspicions have arisen that he has repeatedly received a large amount of bribes from S.A. Gulamov, R.Ch. Hajiyev, S.F. Taghiyev, E.V. Ibrahimov, T.D. Panahov, S.H.Abdullayev, I.M. Musayev, E.Y. Humbatov, A.S. Aliyev, and other persons,” the information says.

In the criminal case, Khalilov was charged with criminal liability under articles 308.1 (abuse of official powers), 311.3.2, and 311.3.3 (repeatedly receiving large bribes) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan and was arrested by a court decision on June 22.

The Ministry also noted that during the investigation conducted, the deputy head of the General Customs Department for Energy Resources and Sea Transport of the State Customs Committee, Babayev Rashad, and Shukur Safarov, who worked as the head of the Department of Control of Road Taxes and Permit Forms of the General Department of Customs Tariff Regulation and Payments, were arrested.

"They are a group of individuals who colluded in advance to release large and heavy foreign trucks that require a special permit to enter the territory of the country in connection with the performance of their official duties from the customs control posts at the border crossing points and in exchange for not creating an obstacle for this, the owners of those trucks use intermediaries for each of them. by doing so, information was obtained about the fact of receiving a large amount of bribes," stated in the official information.

Rashad Babayev and Shukur Safarov were brought to criminal responsibility under articles 311.3.1, 311.3.2, and 311.3.3 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan (repeated acceptance of a large amount of bribe by a group of persons who colluded in advance).  On July 1, the court chose pre-trial detention for them.