Turkey detains 525 suspects in country’s biggest anti-drugs operation, minister says

Turkish police have detained 525 suspected drug dealers in dawn operations across the capital, Ankara, in what Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya described as the biggest anti-narcotics operation in the country’s history

ISTANBUL — 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.