Turkish police have seized the third largest haul of cocaine in the country’s history, the interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, has announced, as groups monitoring organised crime warned that Turkey was becoming an entry point for drugs reaching Europe.
In an operation across three provinces, 608kg of mostly liquid cocaine was confiscated, Yerlikaya posted on X on Thursday. Nearly 830kg of precursor chemicals used to process the drug were also seized.
Yerlikaya said the police operation targeted an international gang allegedly led by a Lebanese-Venezuelan national, who was among four foreign members of the detained organised crime group, along with nine Turks.
“The amount of cocaine seized in the … operation was the third largest amount of cocaine seized at one time in Turkey,” said the minister.
Groups monitoring organised crime say Turkey is growing as a transit hub for cocaine coming from South America to Europe as security at ports such as Rotterdam in the Netherlands becomes tighter.
In a report dated October last year, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said a 44% rise in cocaine seizures in Turkey between 2021 and 2022 was not reflected in data on domestic consumption, “suggesting that the country is likely to serve as a drug corridor”.
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The largest seizure of cocaine in Turkey – 1.1 tonnes hidden in a consignment of bananas from Ecuador – was made at the Mediterranean port of Mersin in 2021.
Yerlikaya, since coming to office in June last year, has been keen to be seen to be clamping down on organised crime in Turkey to counter claims the country has become a haven for foreign gangsters. He regularly posts details of the latest police operation to target drug traffickers, fraudsters and other criminals.
Thursday’s social media post included a video, overlaid with dramatic music, showing apparent surveillance footage, large plastic containers and a pressing machine.
The operation was led by anti-narcotics officers based in Kocaeli, which lies south-east of Istanbul, but also included investigations in Tekirdağ to Istanbul’s north-west and in the Mediterranean province of Antalya.
The gang used vineyards in Tekirdağ and Antalya to store chemicals and process the cocaine, which had been disguised in fertiliser, according to Yerlikaya. A shotgun was also recovered by police, he added.
“We will not tolerate poison traffickers, organised crime groups and gangs, whether national or international,” the minister wrote.
