THE HALFAX HEIMDALL AUGUR

Turkey's Drug Seizures Reveal a Much Larger Trafficking Pipeline ... Turkish authorities’ selective blindness toward drug trafficking is amplified by Turkey’s geography, a convergence point for Afghan heroin, Latin American cocaine, Iranian meth and Syrian-Lebanese Captagon, and by its logistics network, which includes major container hubs like Mersin, Ambarlı, İzmit and Tekirdağ. Shutterstock When Turkey’s trade minister, Ömer Bolat, addressed the Turkish Parliament’s Budget and Planning Committee on November 5, his remarks were crafted to signal a state firmly in control. “This year we seized 40.118 billion lira worth of narcotics, weighing 30 tons and 100 kilograms,” he proclaimed, citing customs enforcement’s operations at Turkey’s borders. On paper, the figure appeared impressive. In reality, it represented only a narrow slice of the narcotics flow crossing Turkish territory. The combined volume of heroin, cocaine, cannabis, skunk, methamphetamine and synthetic cannabinoids seized nationwide reached approximately 105 metric tons, dwarfing customs’ border-only totals. Bolat’s number covered seizures made exclusively at border gates monitored by the trade ministry. It did …

9 detained in NW T rkiye during raid on drug traffickers ISTANBUL, Aug 23: Turkish police confiscated on Friday more than 3 million drug pills in operations in Istanbul and the neighboring province of Kocaeli in northwestern T rkiye, detaining nine suspects, authorities announced. About 3.04 million pills and 52.5 kilograms of additives were seized during the raids targeting drug trafficking networks in Istanbul's Umraniye and Tuzla districts as well as Kocaeli's Gebze district, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on the social media platform X. On Tuesday, Turkish authorities reported intercepting 7.89 million narcotic pills, 63 kilograms of raw drug materials, and 207 kilograms of methamphetamine in two separate operations. T rkiye, strategically located between Asia and Europe, remains a key transit hub for illicit drug trafficking. In response, the government has adopted a hardline approach and intensified nationwide anti-narcotics operations. (UNI)

Türkiye detains 110 suspects in major anti-drug operation Turkish police detained 110 suspects and seized more than 1.28 tons of narcotics in a series of anti-drug operations carried out across four provinces centered in Istanbul, authori...

Turkish police department report reveals country's growing role in ... Large quantities of illegal drugs enter Türkiye each year through multiple routes, with the country now serving not only as a transit corridor but also as a market and production hub, according to anew national drug report. Recent Istanbul-centered operations targeting journalists and public figures, along with nationwide security raids, have pushed drug-related crime to the forefront of the public agenda inTürkiye. According to the 2025 Drug Report by theGeneral Directorate of Security Narcotics Crimes Department, Türkiye plays a triple role in global drug trafficking: production, transit and target market. The report said cocaine enters Türkiye from South America via ports such asIstanbulandMersin, while methamphetamine is smuggled mainly through theIranandIraqborders. Heroin continues to originate primarily fromAfghanistan. Security forces seized 1.34 tons of drugs and more than 178,000 drug pills in nationwide gendarmerie operations over the past two weeks, detaining 424 suspects, 162 of whom were arrested. The report said trafficking of synthetic drugs, methamphetamine and cocaine increased significa…