Turkish police owned 525 alleged drug traffickers in dawn operations through the capital Ankara in what the Minister of the Interior, Ali Yerlikaya, said that it was the “greatest drug operation” in the history of the country.
The operation involved thousands of police, sniff dogs, drones and helicopters and targeted more than 625 addresses, Yerlikaya said.
The raids are the result of the “technical and physical monitoring” of each suspect over six months, he added.
Yerlikaya said many people arrested were suspected of being involved in the sale of drugs “in neighborhoods and streets via internet communication platforms”.
“We have again shown these poison hawkers very clearly: the streets in which you have penetrated are a dead end,” wrote Yerlikaya in an article on his X account.
The Ministry of the Interior said that repression would continue and that more detentions would take place in the coming days.
The Raids in Türkiye follow a large -scale operation across Europe earlier this week which targeted international drug trafficking and money laundering networks.
More than 230 people were arrested during the operation led by Europol and involving police forces in the Netherlands, Turkey, Germany, Spain and Belgium.
About $ 400 million (51 million euros) of assets were seized.
