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.