Turkey part of new cocaine trafficking route, says counter-narcotics police

Turkey has become a stopover for a new cocaine trafficking route from South America to Europe, the country’s counter-narcotics police directorate announced on Friday.

Güney Amerika’dan sevk edilen kokain maddesi bakımından, Türkiye üzerinden Avrupa ve Asya’ya doğru yeni bir rota oluşmuştur. pic.twitter.com/PVPVKXYZ64

— Narkotik Suçlarla Mücadele Daire Başkanlığı (@NarkotiksmDB) May 21, 2021

Over the last few years, the number of cocaine-based incidents have dropped in the country while there has been an increase in cocaine seized by Turkish officials, the department said, citing an annual report.

This is one of the indicators that point to Turkey becoming "a transit/step" country in cocaine trafficking, it said.  

The report arrives after Panamanian authorities earlier this month seized a container hiding 616 packs of cocaine hidden in cases of bananas on their way from Ecuador to a port in Turkey’s southern Mersin province, according to the Central American country’s National Aeronaval Service (SENAN).

The incident followed a claim by far-right organised mob leader Sedat Pekerthat government officials were involved with the trafficking of drugs confiscated in Colombia in an incident that took place last year.

Colombian authorities in June 2020 seized 4.9 tons of cocaine in the seaport city of Buenaventura, destined for Turkey. The drugs that were seized in the police operation were worth some $265 million, according to Colombian Minister of Defence Carlos Holmes Trujillo.

The number of cocaine-related incidents in Turkey registered at around 3,886 in 2007, dropping to 2,573 in 2020, the Turkish police report said. This while the seized cocaine in the country rose from 1,485 to 1,961 kilograms during the same time period, according to the report.