Turkey, Europol Arrest 234 in Major Drug Trafficking Crackdown
Turkish authorities, working alongside law enforcement agencies in Europe, detained 234 people on Tuesday in a sweeping international operation targeting large-scale drug trafficking networks. The coordinated raids took place across 20 provinces in Turkey and in five European countries—Belgium, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and under the oversight of Europol.
According to Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, 225 suspects were arrested inside Turkey and nine abroad, including 10 individuals listed on Interpol’s red notice list. The operation, code-named “Orkinos-Bulut,” was aimed at dismantling four transnational criminal organizations accused of drug trafficking, money laundering, homicide, kidnapping, and blackmail.
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“These groups are involved in distributing cocaine from South America, heroin from Iran and Afghanistan, and synthetic drugs such as ecstasy and skunk produced in Europe,” Yerlikaya said in a post on social media platform X. He added that they also smuggled precursor chemicals from East Asia to Europe to support drug production.
The eight-month investigation, conducted in partnership with Europol, uncovered the structure and methods of the trafficking networks. Authorities seized assets worth 13 billion Turkish lira (about $341 million), including real estate, vehicles, business shares, and bank accounts.
Tuesday’s crackdown is the latest in a series of cross-border operations as Turkey attempts to curb its role as a transit point in global narcotics routes stretching from Asia to Europe. The government has recently stepped up its focus on organized crime and illicit finance.
