'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.