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ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish police detained 525 suspected drug
dealers in dawn operations across the capital, Ankara, on
Thursday in what Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said was the
“biggest narcotics operation" in the country's history.
The operation involved thousands of police officers, sniffer
dogs, drones and helicopters and targeted over 625 addresses,
Yerlikaya said. The raids were the result of “technical and
physical surveillance” of each suspect over six months, he
added.
Yerlikaya said many of those arrested were suspected of being
involved in the sale of narcotics “in neighborhoods and streets
via internet-based communication platforms.”
“We have shown those poison peddlers once again very clearly:
the streets you have entered is a dead end,” Yerlikaya wrote on
his X account.
The Interior Ministry said the crackdown would continue and more
detentions would take place in the coming days.
The raids in Turkey follow a large-scale Europe-wide operation
on Tuesday which targeted international drug trafficking and
money laundering networks. Over 230 people were arrested during
the operation led by Europol and police forces in Netherlands,
Turkey, Germany, Spain, and Belgium, during which $400 million
worth of assets were seized.
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