U.S. expert examines meaning behind release of top Turkish Mafia boss

https://ahvalnews.com/legal-amnesty/us-expert-examines-meaning-behind-release-top-turkish-mafia-boss

Police in Turkey arrested fugitve drug lord Cetin Gören today in what that country's minister of the interior, Süleyman Soylu, called "the most important anti-narcotics operation in the history of Turkey". Over 60 people were arrested, including Gören, who had been a fugitive for several years. Read his profile: http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-turkish-drug-boss-cetin-goren

Turkey takes Dutch coke baron as prime suspect in mega-investigation
In Turkey the convicted Rotterdam drug boss Cetin G. was arrested in a very extensive drug investigation. This includes a shipment of 4.9 tons of cocaine seized in Colombia early this month.
G. was a fugitive since 2016. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for a very large cocaine shipment.

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu spoke of "the largest operation in the history of the republic when it comes to combating drug trafficking."
An arrest warrant was issued for 94 people. 67 were arrested. Raids have been carried out or people have been arrested in nine countries, besides Turkey in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Chile, Ecuador and Brazil. So far, 70 million liras (about 9 million euros) in money and assets have been seized.

G. is the main suspect in the investigation, other Turkish drug traffickers with big names were also arrested. Police actions in Turkey were still in progress on Tuesday morning.

Cetin G. will now first be tried in Turkey. It remains to be seen whether he will ever end up in prison in the Netherlands.

Cetin Goren was involved in a batch of 8000 kilos that was smuggled from Ecuador. The cargo was intercepted in Antwerp in October 2012. His partner Samir 'Scarface' Bouyakhrichan was shot dead in 2014 in Marbella. Other investors were said to be Italians from Limburg.

Turkish mob boss Alaattin Çakıcı, former interior minister and police chief Mehmet Ağar, former general Engin Alan and former colonel Korkut Eken have met in Muğla’s resort town of Bodrum amid criticism that Turkey has been relapsing into the mindset of the 1990s, Turkish media reported on Friday.

The meeting made the news after a photo of the four — some of the shadiest figures in recent Turkish history — was shared on social media by Üzeyir Çakmaktaş, known to be close to Çakıcı.

https://www.yerepouni-news.com/2020...y-war-against-kurds-meet-in-resort-town/

Turkish police crack down on mafia in nationwide operations

https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/i...k-down-on-mafia-in-nationwide-operations

Exiled Turkish mafia boss Sedat Peker makes new corruption claims
Presidential advisers are implicated in an alleged bribery ring targeting business figures.


Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/original...akes-new-corruption-claims#ixzz7jZqLpYsr

A Turkish organised crime gang until recently headed by a late North Cypriot casino and hotel boss wanted in the US for money laundering and drug trafficking, has reportedly been laundering the proceeds of illegal gambling through a Malta cryptocurrency exchange.

Some $30 million in cryptocurrency in Malta that belonged to the murdered Turkish crime boss, Halil Falyal?, who was assassinated last February in North Cyprus, has been seized by Turkish authorities as part of an investigation into an illegal gambling ring, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

https://theshiftnews.com/2022/11/04/turkish-organised-crime-gang-hid-30m-in-malta-crypto-accounts/

In Spain, crime boss Atilla Ö (57), also known to the Dutch judiciary, was arrested on Monday. the Turkish Interior Minister reported on Twitter. The arrest was made at the request of the Turkish authorities.

O. is suspected of membership of a criminal organization, large-scale drug trafficking and possession of weapons. Turkey will ask Spain for extradition. O. settled in Spain. A tip had come in about his whereabouts.

The Dutch Turk was released in Turkey in 2014 due to a change in the law. He had been detained in Istanbul since 2007 because he was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for murder and drug trafficking in the so-called Besiktas affair.

O. had interests in various coffee shops in Amsterdam and was one of the founders of the party location The Sand in Amsterdam-West, but is no longer involved.

O. was a close acquaintance of Kees Houtman, hash dealer and real estate dealer who was murdered in 2005. According to key witness Peter La S., Ö. was on a death list of Dino Soerel and Ali Akgün. The latter was shot dead in Istanbul in December 2014.

In Turkey, one of the most wanted drug lords Urfi Çetinkaya was arrested on Tuesday evening. He was arrested in a villa in Istanbul-Sar?yer, north of the center, five others were also arrested. Çetinkaya's arrest was a national priority for the Turkish government. This is evident because at the national level there was cooperation between the Anti-Narcotics Department and the police in Istanbul, led by the powerful Directorate General of Security in Ankara.
He was sentenced to 24 years in prison for involvement in heroin and cocaine shipments between 2003 and 2013. There is also an ongoing investigation in which his brother and cousin were already arrested in May last year.
Çetinkaya is of Turkish-Kurdish descent, his age can only be guessed at.
He has been in a wheelchair since 1988. That is the result of a shooting by the police when he ignored a police stop sign in the car on May 18, 1988. He spent several years in prison but slowly worked his way to a top position in the Turkish underworld, especially after he was released.
He has sometimes been called 'the most powerful man in Turkey' after President Erdogan, but whether that was the case is doubtful. For some time he lived in a veritable palace in Istanbul, but at a certain point he felt compelled to go into hiding and emigrate. He would have stayed in Dubai, among other places.

'Turkish godfather involved in Hamburg's cocaine record'
February 20, 2024

A whole series of suspects have been arrested in various places in Turkey who are said to be part of the criminal organization of the Turkish "godfather" Ürfi Çetinkaya, who has been in prison since April last year , the Turkish police report. The organization is said to have been involved in the transport of 13 tons of cocaine that was caught in Hamburg in 2021.

Rüstem Çetinkaya
Turkish media write that 42 suspects have been arrested, including Rüstem and Hakan Çetinkaya and a man identified as HYN. There was an arrest warrant against the latter from the United States.

The investigation was led by the chief prosecutor in Istanbul and the Anti-Drug Directorate of the Directorate General of Security, the national department that fights organized crime in Turkey.

There were raids in Izmir, Afyonkarahisar, Malatya, Antalya, Çanakkale, Bilecik, Mu?la and Istanbul.

Wheelchair
The leader of the criminal organization that the Turkish justice department has in mind is Ürfi Cetinkaya, who can only move in a wheelchair. He was arrested last year because he still had to serve an old sentence.

He is again suspected of international drug trafficking, founding an armed organization with the aim of committing a crime and money laundering. His son Rüstem sees the Turkish judiciary as his successor.

Record in Hamburg
The network is said to have shipped 37 tons of cocaine to Germany, Bulgaria, Spain, Mauritania, Portugal and Greece, among others.

According to Turkish justice, the record catch of 13 tons in Hamburg several years ago can also be attributed to a transport of the suspects. At the beginning of February, a German-Iranian man, Pouya Mohmini, was arrested in Colombia for this .

Hawala
Drug profits collected by the criminal organization in other European countries went to Turkey through underground banking from Hawala networks.

The investigation into the drug shipments of the Çetinkaya family took two years.