108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERSAN OVERALL ASSESSMENT OF TRANSNATIONALORGANIZED CRIME
Muammer Yasar Özgül*
I. INTRODUCTION
Some factors such as technologicalprogress, easiness of crossing frontiers andtransition of the economic policies incountries have encouraged criminalorganization and added an international
dimension to such crime. For instance,
while an illicit drug organization uses
counterfeit passport and identity cards tohide its members’ identity results in fraud ;to legalize the proceeds derived from suchcrime (by founding screen companies), withproceedings going to banks and foreignexchanges results in the crime of money
laundering. Spending money to purchaseweapon leads to gun smuggling and that
also engenders terrorism. This causes morefamiliarity and cooperation among crimegroups.
A. Definition of Organized Crime
Organized crime is, within an
organization which could be in any form,
to use violence or at least put pressure toprovide benefits. Therefore, the term of“organized crime” consists of someelements below:i) Existence of an association ( 2 ormore persons)ii) The aim of providing benefit(money or power)iii) Violence or pressure.
i) Existence of an association: The main
component that distinguishes organizedcrime from other crimes is that two or more
people are participating in the crime andputting the desire directed towards the* Deputy General Director of Personnel, Ministry ofInterior, Turkey.

same goal.
ii) The aim of providing benefit:
Organized crime groups expect materialand social benefit as a result of their illegal
activities.
iii) Violence or pressure: An organizedcrime group beats, wounds and kills as aviolence element and uses threat andblackmail as a pressure element, aimed atproviding benefit for itself or a third person.
B. Differences between “Mafia” and“Organized Crime”
Is the organization which is called“Mafia” in the press and public outside oforganized crime? To most people the termorganized crime and Mafia are the same.
This unfortunate mistake arose because somany criminals who made great
reputations in the 1920’s came from Italy
and, in particular, Sicily. The Mafia has for
centuries been a notorious Sicilian
organization. But it is difficult to hold the
Mafia outside of the terms organized crime.
Because the Mafia also contains each of
the three components mentioned above, it
has some characteristics comparable toother crime organizations. For example theMafia:• Infiltrates economic and social
structures.
• Gets the management of public
services and contracts, economic
activities, privileges, andauthorizations; or takes control atleast.
• Gets into, directly or indirectly,
the management of commercial
and industrial organizations, orcompanies.

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54• Prevents the carrying out of theadministration freely.
• Unbalances social and economic life
as related to the aforementioned.
In addition the Mafia has;
• A hierarchical structure that
performs in solid manner.
• Organization membership tied todefined rules.
• A monopoly on their activities.
• The punishment of the treacheryto the organization as death.
As shown, the Mafia influences
economical and administrative decision
processes. As a result, the Mafia is anorganized crime group which threatenspublic security and affects the general
economy and public administration.
II. CURRENT SITUATION OF
TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZEDCRIME
A. General Situation Of Illicit Drug
Trafficking
The illicit drugs phonemenon has threeelements which are different in essence,but somehow intertwined. Therefore, theillicit drugs problem may well be regarded
as a tri-fold menace which could beconsidered under the topics of illicit
production, trafficking and consumption.
It is not possible however to deny theexistence of some organic linkage whichenables us to move from one topic onto
another between these essentially separate
elements. Essentially, if there was no illicit
production, there would be no illicit
trafficking, and if there was no trafficking
then there would naturally be no demandfor illicit drugs. Therefore, non-existenceof the demand would not give rise to the
supply.
Both supply and demand aremaintaining their very presence to somegreat extent. The distance between the182

supplier countries and the demanding ones
causes illicit traffic in drugs. This featureof drug criminality necessitates that drug
enforcement focus basically on the supply
and demand aspect of the phonemenon.
Supply control should include reducing
opium poppy and cannabis quantities used
to manufacture illicit narcotics; preventionof traffic in synthetic drugs and carryingout the related combat. Demand control on
the other hand should include eliminationof the possible means leading to drug
abuse, carrying out the related combat andthe treatment rehabilitation of abusers aswell as addicts. Meanwhile, control of bothsupply and demand should be carried out
at operational, political, diplomatic andsocio-economic levels.
Any fight against drugs based solely on
an individual nation’s effort will not lead
to absolute success because illicit drug
criminality is linked to organized crime andterrorism. Effective international
cooperation is necessary in this regard. The
ever increasing work of nations on thisissue and the direct actions they are taking
to combat drugs are well commended.
Turkey too is committed to the combat ofdrugs, both with national efforts andinitiatives taken internationality.
B. Production Areas of the World
Drugs and the various materials that areused in drug production are produced inlarge amounts in each continent.
Cannabis is cultivated in a significant
amount of the major countries in Africa.
According to Interpol reports, South Africa
is becoming a main source of the illegal
cultivation of more than 175.000 tons ofcannabis. The enterprises founding theclandestine laboratories for the production
methaqualone or other psycotrophic
materials have been detected in someeastern and southern African Countries(South Africa, Mozambique).

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
In 1996, as in the past, hashish wasraised for domestic consumption in Middle
America and the Caribbean. Jamaica
continued to be an important source ofhashish for consumption in Europe andNorthern America. Hashish is also
cultivated and produced in Mexico (Brasil
and Colombia) for the USA. The illegal
production of metamphethamin and LSD
increased in the USA. In Colombia, poppy
and opium poppy is also raised. Peru and
Bolivia has remained the biggest producerof coca. The coca that is the raw materialof cocaine is smuggled from Peru and
Bolivia into Colombia, where it istransformed into cocaine and enters theworld market 3. The production of synthetic
drugs and acetic anhydride that is used in
the production of heroin is realized in theUSA.
Cannabis grows naturally in a numberof the countries in south-east Asia, such as
Thailand. The illicit production of poppy
and heroin and the cultivation of opium
poppy have continued to increase in
Burma. Acetic anhydride is produced in
China, India and South Korea 4 . An
important amount of ephedrine has been
produced in the Russian Federation. In
addition, cannabis has been grown in the
Russian Federation, especially poppy in
Khazakistan. Pakistan also has animportant place in the production of resinhashish5. Opium poppy has been cultivatedin legal ways in India, Japan, China andTurkey. Heroin that is significant part of
drug trafficking, is produced from poppy
which has been grown in the Golden
Triangle (Burma, Laos, Thailand) and theGolden Crescent (Pakistan, Iran,Afghanistan) . Poppy has been grown inlegal ways in France, Spain, Hungry.
Holland has become a producer of cannabis(3) INCB Report for Precursors 1995
(4) INCB Report for 1995
(5) INCB Report for 1995

in closed areas. Amphetamine has also
been produced in Holland. A major numberof LSD seized in Europe was welded in theUSA. In Australia and Oceania, illegal
cannabis and legal poppy has been grown
and methamphetamyn has been produced.
As shown above, drug materials arise
naturally or are grown on purpose for thereason of high profit, to finance terrorism
or cold wars between countries. Drugtrafficking has followed many various
routes in countries throughout the World
from east to west and south to north.
C. Illicit Drugs Problem In Turkey
and Related Policies and Fight
Against Drugs
We have tried to cover drug problems
and the global fight so far. In this context,
Turkey is a transit point because of features
such as an adjacent geographical location
which is in intersection with the continentsof Asia and Europe. Having those
producing regions in the east while theconsuming regions are in the west-coupledwith the passing of the Balkan Routethrough her-Turkey has, as the mostimportant problem, the illicit trade of
narcotics.
Fluctuations in this region have caused,
as mentioned above, the emergence of newroutes. Enhanced criminal capabilities for
those drug syndicates which were new tothe republics which gained independence
upon dissolution of the former Soviet,
coupled with crises caused by sucheconomical transition, have led to theemergence of new criminal groups witheither involvement in or cooperation withdrug trafficking groups.
Turkey is facing traffic from east to west
with the trafficking of synthetic tablets,
such as Captagon and Ecstasy (and facing
west-to-east traffic) of cocaine and it’s
precursors, mainly acetic anhydride, which

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
is used in heroin production. In thiscontext, Turkey is also an intersection for
narcotics and their precursors in addition
to her transit position for other drugs.
The majority of the narcotics moved into
Turkey from the east and/or southeast,
belong to the PKK terrorist organization.
The same organization traffics some otherparts of the narcotics across the border for
drug trafficking organizations for a certain
commission. Drug trafficking
organizations, mainly the PKK, act as anintermediary for transporting their illicit‘cargoes’ supplied from producing countries
to consuming areas and markets.
In some other cases, as will be mentioned
under the heading “Clandestine
Laboratories,” it has been detected that the
PKK terrorist organization and other drug
networks are attempting to supply
morphine base at a lower cost, converting
amounts of the substance into heroin inclandestine heroin laboratories, and finallymoving end-products at a higher price toconsumption locales in Europe. Turkey’s
location as an intersection plays a majorrole in such undesired formation.
Metaphorically speaking, it is impossible
for Turkey to avoid the drug menace, giventhat she is already surrounded by such
pervasive drug movement. Dangerous
indications suggesting the emergence of
addiction have recently begun to surface.
However, more important for Turkey are
the facts that drugs constitute the major
financial support for the PKK terrorist
organization, and that drug funding is
known to benefit from this organization.
Subordinated to the Ministry of Interior,
the General Directorate of Security,
General Command of Gendarmerie andCoast Guard Command, General
Directorate of Pharmaceuticals of the
Ministry of Health, AMATEM (Treatment

184

Center For Alcohol and Substance Addicts),
Turkish Grains Board of the Ministry ofAgriculture and Village Affairs, theGeneral Directorate of Customs and theGeneral Directorate of Customs Guard of
the Undersecretaries of Customs are on
duty to combat illicit drug trafficking inTurkey.
The General Directorate of Security is
the main operational body for drug
enforcement in Turkey. The General
Command of Gendarmerie carries out druginterception efforts through its narcotic
teams employed in rural and borderregions. The Coast Guard Command
carries out, with assistance from theTurkish Navy when necessary, the drug
fight at sea.
The General Directorate ofPharmaceuticals of the Ministry of Healthdefines the procedure for drugs andpsychotropic substances used for medical
purposes, arranges licenses for legallyimported chemicals and psychotropic
substances control, and provides for theprocedures for treatment of addicts.
The only treatment center for drug
addicts, AMATEM (Treatment Center For
Alcohol and Substance Addicts) has been
established within the premises of the
BAKIRKÖY MENTAL STATE HOSPITAL
in Istanbul. This mental hospital, under
the Ministry of Health, is the largest of its
kind in Turkey. Plans exist to set up similarcenters in five (5) other regions.
The Turkish Grains Board of the
Ministry of Agriculture and Village Affairs
is charged with overseeing licit cultivation;issuing licenses; making policies for thepurchase of cultivated products, operating
the Afyon Alkaloid Plant, and carrying out
export transactions.
Subordinated to the Undersecretaries of

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
Customs, two Directorates are charged
with the interception, investigation, andprosecution of any acts of smuggling,including drugs, within Turkish Customs
areas.
D. Licit and Illicit Drug Productioni) Licit Poppy and Cannabis Growing
Turkey is a traditional licit grower ofopium poppies and controlled and unlanced
poppy growing is taking place in 13
provinces. The harvested crops are being
processed at the Afyon Alkaloid Plant for
medical use. Checks on licit poppy
cultivation from poppy cultivation till theend of harvest are being rigidly carried out.
This practice which was begun in 1994, andto date, no seizures of opium derived from
Turkish poppies have been sighted either
at home or abroad.
ii) Precursors Used to Manufacture Heroin
Forerunning among the precursors in
illicit drug production, acetic acid is notproduced in Turkey but mention can bemade of its licit import as it has various
domestic industrial uses. Both licit importand distribution of the substance has been
under rigid control through the relevant
Legislation. No diversion from the legallyimported products has been sighted until
now.
Turkey is seeing reverse precursor traffic
from west-to-east, contrary to what is seen
in regard to heroin or morphine base. Thismeans that, Turkey is also an intersectionin terms of the trafficking of such
substances in addition to being a transit
for illicit drug trafficking.
The successful seizure of fifty-three (53)tons of acetic anhydride thanks toconscientious efforts in 1995, has been
considerably influential on the 1996
seizures record. Acetic anhydride seizure(25.2 tons) for 1996 has dropped according
to the previous year by 49.1% .

iii) Clandestine Heroin Laboratories
As emphasized earlier, it is no longer asecret that some trafficking organizations
have turned, in an attempt to magnify theirprofits, to derive heroin in Turkey throughutilizing primitive methods from either
acetic anhydride and morphine base
supplied from producing countries, thus
giving up the practice of carrying the readyto-use heroin from the production sites to
consuming communities. That trend isenhanced by the strategic location ofTurkey in terms of illicit drug trafficking.
Four clandestine heroin laboratories weredetected in Turkey in 1996.
E. Drug Trafficking Passing throughTurkeyIn this part, the trafficking dimensionof the drug problem will be considered firstin the context of drug routes passing
through Turkey, then an evaluation of drug
seizures and the offenders.
i) Routes
The presence of the Northern Black Sea
Route, the Balkan Route, and the Eastern
Mediterranean Route in the east-to-west,
against precursor routes from west-to-east,
have already been mentioned. Being atransit point in that regard, Turkey is anintersection where there is some reverse
traffic in terms of drug trafficking routes.
Situated in the midst of such traffic, Turkey
has many drug routes passing through her.
Trailing along a west-to-east line, theprecursors traffic is carried out with such
substances originating in their production
zones (the European countries) being
moved to drug producing regions,particularly the Golden Crescent region.
ii) Seizures
In general, there is an increase as to theamounts of heroin, morphine base andsynthetics, as against some decrease inhashish and cocaine quantities, in drug
seizures in 1996. Factors like consuming

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
preferences, drug prices, etc. play a majorrole in such changes.
iii) HeroinEver increasing demand is the primaryelement to explain the increase both inheroin cases and related seizures.
Destination of the heroin trail passing
through Turkey, Europe, has long had
consuming masses. Growing numbers ofmembers are being added to those masses
each and everyday. During 1996, casenumbers increased by 31% while seizedamounts increased by 28%, which is also
an indication of the priority accorded to the
combat of drugs.
iv) Hashish
Hashish amounts for 1996, whencompared to the year 1995, show aconsiderable decline. Underlying reasonsfor that might be less lucrative profits fromhashish and promotion of the morelucrative drug types preferred bytraffickers.
The leading drug production sites are in
Lebanon, although there has been a majordecline due to the establishment andorganization of a security system which isunder way in Lebanon, and the substitutive
agro-policies carried out by the U.S. and
I.N.C.B.. Hashish seizures also declined
last year, as in 1995, due to the African
production which took route in European
markets; the heroin preferred by traffickers
and the ecstasy apreferred by consumers.
The growing number of case discoveries aremostly due to the street teams set up.
v) Cocaine
Turkey is not in the mainstream ofcocaine routes, which is keeping seizures
low. Both the cocaine amounts and theseizures were in considerable incline
during 1995, against a major decline in
1996.

186

Major decline in the cases and amountsof cocaine is mostly due to the increased
general use of disco drugs, namely thestimulating ecstasy tablets, use of which
saw in recent years a higher frequency inTurkey. It is considered that cocaine users
in search of a new drug have now turned
to ecstasy and that trafficking
organizations are attempting to create afresh avenue to push this drug widely
abused, in almost the entire of Europe, tothe Turkish market. Great amounts of
ecstasy seizures in 1996 have supported
such an assertion.
TABLE 1
Ecstasy Seizures
Year
1995
1996

Case
3
4

Quantity ( unit )93473

Note: The statistics of all tables are taken from police
registrations in the Ministry of Interior.The
amounts include the registration of police, General
Command of Gendarmerie and Coast Guard
Command.

vi) Morphine Base
Morphine base seizures were generally
made at the clandestine heroin laboratories
discovered. Seizure ratios, compared to lastyear’s statistics, indicate a major decline
from past years cases in number but also
some partial incline in confiscatedamounts, which suggests there is morphinebase trafficking taking place in big lots.
vii) Synthetic Drugs
The basic synthetic drug of traffic is
captagon. Captagon is not consumed in
Turkey but mostly in the Middle-East
countries. Illicit captagon production isconcentrated in certain European
countries. Manufactured tablets illicitly
enter Turkey in the west and aretransported to the Middle-East by certain
organizations in the south and southeast

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
of Turkey. To that effect, land transport isutilized, making use of the existing
commercial contacts with Middle-Easterncountries.
Another route in the illicit traffic is the
one leading from European countries, via
maritime lines, to the countries indownward location to Turkey. The relative
decrease in seizures merits attention,
despite a clear decrease during 1995 in
Turkey.
F. Drug Trafficking Organizations
While illicit drug trafficking used to be
run before the 1990’s by people or groups,
more recent times saw traffickers
incredibly intensify their activity byforming large family organizations and/or
establishing twopartite or threepartite
family organizations to get higher profits
and run their activities on a larger scale.
ASENA was initiated to make a general
analysis and to further enlarge, based on
information developed, the scope of existingmeasures by establishing matters such as
general structures, modus operandi,targets, roles in the traffic of the mentioned
organizations and what contacts are madewith who.

With ASENA taking effect, information
was established that:• Drug trafficking organizations
were running their illicit businessintertwinedly.
• Activities conducted were limited
to a main focus, based on sharedfields of duty among them.
• Traffickers preferred to establish
kinships, or reinforce existing
internal relations, throughmarriages to unite their powerand enhance trust in each other.
• Traffickers had become sectors of
the production, transport, storage
and distribution of illicit narcotics,
and of the transfer of illicit profits
derived from such criminal
activities.
It is clear from the above the interorganizational division of duties. Below area few examples of the above mentioned
points:• The HAN organization wasmeeting the morphine base needsof such organizations. Hurshit
HAN, leader of the organization
was arrested in Istanbul on 9th,
September 1996 in connection
with some 750 kgs of morphine

TABLE 2
Drug Seizure Figures for Turkey in 1996 by Drug TypeTYPE
Hashish
HeroinMorphine baseOpium
CocaineAcetic anhydride
Synthetic drugs*
TOTAL

CASES
1618
519
5
26
40
7
74
2289

ACCUSED
3287
1650
24
58
122
29
160
5330

QUANTITY(kg)
12294
4422
1157
233
13
42450
259097319666* Per unit

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
base seizure.
• Suppliers of morphine base, theAY and KONUKLU organizations
were converting, in their own
clandestine laboratories, volumesof morphine base into heroin.
Located in Saray town, Tekirdag,
the laboratories owned by theseorganizations were seized on 8th,
March 1995.
• Heroin quantities produced werebeing transported by the
KUYUCU and KASAR
organizations, into Europe.
Mehmet KASAR, leader of theorganization, was arrested during
an operation in Istanbul on 7th,
April 1996 where some 158 kgs ofheroin was confiscated.
• Illicit drug quantities moved into
Europe are being stashed in
Romania by the SITOCHI
Organization, and pushed invarious European local markets
by the SITOCHI, POLAT andother organizations.
• With ASENA, twenty-five (25)illicit organizations have been
schematized to present time. Of
these, four (4) were smashed andfinally disrupted throughdetermined action taken.
G. Drug Trafficking and Related
Criminality
While numerous drug trafficking
organizations and cartels initially used tobe small and established with individual
leadings, drug trafficking organizations
have increasingly sought partners in crimefor individually conducted activities. These
were easily found due to impressing people
with the belief of becoming rich; and it iswithin such turn that they become

188

organizations with rules, penalties,
techniques and intimacies.
Many other forms of criminality follow
the organization of drug related crimes.
While illicit drug crimes are considered atearly level stages such as illicit narcotics
planting, dealings and abuse, many othercrimes like the smuggling of precursors(including the smuggling of controlled
precursors placed under international
treaties), laundering drug money, violence,
murder, fraud, theft, human trafficking,arms smuggling, and terrorism are gaining
increased momentum largely due to illicit
gains being shifted into other criminal
channels.
III. CURRENT SITUATION OF
TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZEDCRIME EXCEPT ILLICIT DRUG
TRAFFICKING
The general situation of illicit drugtrafficking has been clarified. The following
will try to briefly explain othertransnational organized crime, withstatistics.
A. Illicit Firearms Trafficking
In 1995 and 1996, illicit firearms
trafficking occurred in Turkey. The
statistics of individual and organized illicit
firearms trafficking are given below.
TABLE 3
Recent Firearms Trafficking
Year
1995
1996
1997*

Incident Arrested Offenders Fugitives
145
603
46
171
918
73
145
683
56

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
Confiscated Firearms and Other
Materials
Year
1995
1996
1997

Firearms
1.006
1.054
1.316

Bombs
132
1
-

Bullets
37.47991.27561.571The PKK play an important role in illicit
fire arms trafficking in addition to drugtrafficking.
B. Smuggling of Illegal Migrants
Because of the political instability inNorthern Iraq, Turkey is having someproblems in this regard. This problem has
emerged recently and no certain statistics
are available. Some organized groups aretransferring the people of north Iraq via
Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria to European
Countries. These organized groups areproviding false passports to Iraqi people
and are manipulating them to apply aspolitical refugees in European Countries.
Besides this, some people who are
unemployed are cheated by organizedcrime groups with the promise of work. The
table below indicates the situation of illegal
migrants cases by year.
TABLE 4
Illegal Migrant Cases
Year
1994
1995
1996
1997

Incident
35
49
47
35

Accused
122
173
188
171

C. Illicit Trafficking in Women andChildren
In Turkey there may be illicit trafficking
in women, but there is no such problem forchildren. This might stem from the cultural

structure of Turkish society. After thecollapse of the Soviet Union, considerable
amounts of women, who are engaged in
prostitution, entered Turkey from Russia
and some Balkan countries. This incident
is not generally a result of the activities oforganized groups, but the individual
preferences of the women from the above
mentioned countries in which poverty has
become one of the major problems.
D. Stealing Motor Vehicles and their
Illicit Ttrafficking
The number of foreign stolen motor
vehicles sold in Turkey is so limited that it
is not worth mentioning. However, Turkish
workers employed in various European
countries are bringing their own cars of ahigh quality, which are comparatively
cheap in Europe but expensive in Turkey,
and selling them through various methods
without paying customs tax.
TABLE 5Stolen Motor Vehicles
Year
1994
1995
1996

Confiscated Cars Cars Searched
275
413
197
200
171
165

E. Money Laundering
Predominantly, money laundering
activities are performed at casinos. The
owners of casinos are receiving a certain
percentage of the illicit money from ownersof this money for money laundering.
Besides casinos, money laundering
activities have been found in paravane
companies, travel agencies, hotels andbanks. These types of activities are
performed both by organized groups andindividuals. In order to camouflage theseillicit activities, some fictious companies
have been established and employed.

*The numbers of 1997 in the whole tables are takenfrom police registrations and do not include othersecurity forces registrations.

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
F. Transnational Economic Crimes(Others)
In regard to transnational economic
crimes, counterfeiting can be mentioned in
Turkey. Counterfeiting is committed byorganized groups or persons who haveinternational relations. These groups or
persons have the technical capability ofimitating foreign or national currency byusing press equipment or photocopy
machines.
TABLE 6
False Banknotes Obtained
Year
1994
1995
1996

$
104825108734701122020-

DM
717000607400417850-

TL
245225003596000021904000-

IV. LEGAL FRAMEWORK AGAINSTTRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZEDCRIME BY THE CRIMINALJUSTICE SYSTEM IN TURKEY
There is no specific act to penalize crimes
committed by transnational organizedcrime groups. However, there are many
provisions in the Turkish Penal Code tocountermeasure such crimes. Also if thecrime is committed by a group of people,
the penalty is increased proportionally. Yet
the Turkish Penal Code defined organizedcrime as below:“ They who become organized tocommit crime ”. Article 313- “They whoform an organization to commit crimein any form, are punished with prison
sentence from 1 to 2 years.”
According to Turkish Penal Code Article36:“ a-If some special tools are prepared forthe purpose of community crime, thesetools and equipment are confiscatedby the state.
b-If some materials which are

190

prohibited of using, selling or owningby law, are produced, these materials
are also confiscated.
c-If firearms are carried without thepermission of the authorities, thesefirearms are confiscated. ”
Beside this, The Prevention andControlling of Smuggling Act also has
articles to confiscate goods, tools andproceeds derived from crime. These articles
are applicable to specific transnationalorganized crimes. Additionally The Drug
Control Act contains provisions for theconfiscation and destroying of drugs.
Finally, firearms either obtained by
security forces or confiscated by the courts
are submitted to the defense secretary (theAct About Firearms and Other Crime
Tools).
Moreover, the Prevention of Money
Laundering Act has adjusted for theconfiscation of ‘black’ money. According to
the Act, offenders who money launder canbe punished with imprisonment. The,
‘black’ money is confiscated and theoffender has to pay twice that quantity ofmoney back as a penalty. If the offender
does not have enough money, their property
is correspondingly distrained.
There are not any specific laws tocriminalize organized crime groups inTurkey at present. However both the
Ministry of Justice and the Ministry ofInterior have prepared a Bill to regulateorganized crimes which is expected to passin Turkish Parliament in 1998.
Controlled delivery is regulated by an
Act to prevent money laundering. There aresome regulations about immunity in the
Police Duty and Authority Act. Security
forces can search private places with awarrant issued by a judge. Yet with thejudgment of a court, the police can wiretap
according to The Criminal Judicial

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
Procedure Act. The members of parliament
have immunity in the sense that they can
not be taken to court without thepermission of the parliament.
There are provisions for the protectionof witnesses for terror related crimes inTurkish legislation. We have a special Act
with regard to criminal punishment insentencing policy. The Turkish Penal Codeand The Criminal Judicial Procedure Act
regulates criminal law. As known, there areinternational treaties to facilitate
international cooperation such as
extradition and mutual legal assistance incriminal matters. All of these treaties havebeen accepted by parliament.
V. CURRENT SITUATION OF
DETECTION AND INVESTIGATIONIN TURKEY
In the Constitution of the General
Directorate of Security, the Department of
Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime isestablished. In the structure of thatdepartment, seven (7) branch offices areformed as follows:i) The section of economic crimes.
ii) The section of narcotic crimes.
iii) The section of illicit firearms.
iv) The section of organized crimes.
v) The search section.
vi) Technical services section.
vii)The bureau of official documents,
statistics and computer systems.
Besides, the specific section, each
respective section engages organized crime
which is related to their own matters. The
Department of Anti-Smuggling andOrganized Crime is sufficiently organizedand equipped to deal with crime all overthe country.
In every province (there are eighty (80)provinces in Turkey) that anti-smuggling
and organized crime units are constituted,

they are subordinated to The General
Directorate of Security via the Directoratesof Security. In addition, Anti-smuggling
Bureaus have been established and madeoperational in some fourteen (14) cities
with strategic importance in terms of drugtrafficking (such as Yüksekova, Hopa,Çesme and Iskenderun).
The Department is responsible for thecollection, analyzing and dissemination of
all information related to drug smuggling
and organized crime, as well as theprovision of instruction and guidance tolocal units. It also carries out the allocationof personnel, financial and logisticalresources to local units. They also use atele-drug system which provides
computerized information exchange
between other countries and Turkey.
The equipment which is called“Smuggling Network Project” has been
recently procured for a more efficientcombat of smuggling and organized crime
nation wide; providing audio-visualcommunication between the center and its
units. In this way it is possible to transfer
suspect’s pictures and crime evidence toform archives. This project will be
operational in 1998.
During wiretapping (possible with acourt order) tape recorders of out dated
technology are used. Therefore it becomes
impossible to transfer records into a digital
environment and so cross-examine. But a
digital record system was purchased for theCenter and fifteen (15) provinces in 1997,
thus the above-mentioned problem willcease. Turkey does not have any important
problems regarding equipment and devices
due to progress made.
In Turkey, as city-based investigators oforganized crimes have sufficient ability andexpertise, regional seminars have beenarranged on the current legal and191

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
administrative situation of smuggling andorganized crime, new methods, technicaland personnel possibilities, problems
encountered for the managers of smuggling
and organized crime units. The first ofthese seminars has been held in Diyarbak,
the second in G.Antep, the third in
Erzurum, the fourth in Samsun and thefifth in Ankara. Furthermore thespecialized training program (forinvestigators in regional bases) has been
carried out with the aim of more effective
combat of such crimes that have increased
lately.
In detection and investigation, gathering
information is very important. In Turkey,
the measures written below are taken togather information;• Wiretapping of conversations ofsuspects (people known to berelated to such crimes), paravane
companies and paravane financial
constitutions.
• The accounts of suspects andcompanies, banks mentioned
above are taken under control.
• The connection between ordinary
crime groups and political crimegroups such as the P.K.K. iswatched closely.
• Suspected hotels and travel
agencies are kept undersurveillance.
There are a lot of difficulties in
identifying transnational organized crimegroups and gathering information about
them. Some of those are;• Such crime groups obtain and use
some politicians, public
administrators, journalists.
• Such groups look out for any
weakness of police chiefs, judges,
public prosecutors, politicians andpublic administrators and thenblackmail them.

192(Note : The two issues mentioned above
are speculative, as no such cases have been
detected yet in Turkey.)• Sufficient information is not given
by opponent countries andinternational investigation
organizations, such as
INTERPOL. The intelligence
services of some foreign countries
are behind such crime groups.
Yet the detection of such crimes has beenquite successful so far. Besides, the persons
who play major roles or who are in thehighest position in such organized crimegroups have been successfully arrested.
(For instance the chief of crime group of
SÖYLEMEZLER, Sena SÖYLEMEZ ; thechief of Hursit Han’s group, Hursit Han;
the chief of Havar Family, Halil Havar haveall been arrested and jailed).
Some difficulties, encountered withregard to international cooperation, suchas extradition and mutual legal assistancein criminal matters, are listed below:• Opponent countries do not assist
in the matters above mentioned.
• Controlled delivery can not be
performed as required.
• There is no international
databank concerning such crimes.
VI. CURRENT PROBLEMS IN THE
COMBAT OF TRANSNATIONALORGANIZED CRIME AND SOMEPROPOSALSi) Some governments, intelligence
services, companies and banks are at thebottom of such crime groups world wide
and therefore an International Criminal
Court must be founded.
ii) There are some deficiencies andconflicts in the law related to such crimes
in some countries. For this reason, the laws

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERSof countries must be united and an
International Penal Code should be
prepared to deal with such crimes.
iii) Cooperation among transnationalorganized crime groups is more intensive
then international cooperation.
International cooperation should befacilitated including extradition andmutual legal assistance in criminal
matters.
iv) Gathering information is the mostimportant factor in the combat of suchcrimes. So cooperation among intelligence
services and national polices must be
provided.
v) Special programs should prepared toprotect witnesses in the course ofinvestigations and trial proceedings.
vi) Confiscated illicit proceeds derived
from specific transnational organizedcrimes must be expended for the combat ofsuch crimes.
vii) Controlled delivery is very
important to detect such crime groups.
National police forces should be operativein foreign countries or international police
authorized to operate in each country.
viii) International databank connectedwith all countries should be established.
VII. CONCLUSION
Organized transnational crime is one of
the worst problems for all countries.
Organized crime first disturbs public
security and the balance of economy. It
menaces public health because of drug
addiction, reduces reliance on government
and in this manner causes anarchy, andresults in the judicial system becoming outof order.

It may be impossible to eliminate
organized crime, but it can be reduced to aminimum level. It is impossible to prevent
such crime with measures based solely on
nation wide efforts. In this regard, it isnecessary to combat crime on aninternational level. Therefore international
cooperation is inevitable. Importance mustbe attached to international cooperationand organized crime must be taken
seriously by governments. They must do
everything they can to combat crime on anational and an international scope.
APPENDIX A
THE MODUS OPERANDI BEHIND
THE SEIZURE OF SOME 22.440
KILOGRAMS OF ACETICANHYDRIDEOn 13th Feburary, 1996 a joint operation
at the Alsancak Marine Bordergate wasundertaken by the Izmir Narcotic Police
and the Custom Directorate’s officers andsome 22,440 kg’s of acetic anhydride,
concealed in 379 barrels on TIR truck
driven by a Belgian national, Willy DE
DECKER, were confiscated aboard theferry ‘SAMSUN’ on a cruise from Italy. Theo f f e n d e r s , Ay h a n Y U M R U TA S , A l i
KAZAKOGLU, Ridvan SERINKAN, Tolga
TASDEMIR and Kemal ÖZ were arrested
in connection with the case. The truck
driver said, during the interrogation, that
he had taken the ‘cargo’ from Belgium’s
Michelin city at the ‘S.T.O.P.’ hangar in theindustry zone of Dender MONDA city, bymeans of the owner of ‘GP CARGO’, a
Belgian, Paul GIDIER.
On 14 th March, 1996 some 20kg’s ofheroin was seized in Izmir. The offender,
Abu Bekir SIDDIK OKTAY, said during theinterrogation that 11 tons of the 22,440 kg’sof the acetic anhydride were going to
Yüksekova; and 5 tons of the substancewould be moved by the traffickers to the
PKK camps in the village Cermi, Urumiye

193

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of Iran. He also said that the PKK had theTebriz of Iran as its illicit drug center.
APPENDIX B
THE MODUS OPERANDI OF THE‘HURSIT HAN’ CASE
Acting on a tip, Istanbul Narcotic Police
stopped and searched a TIR truck withentry from Iran to Turkey through the
Gurbulak border crossing. The search led
to discovery of some 750 kg’s of morphinebase - each in 1 kg packets - and concealed
in a secreted parasitic attachment to thedorse of the vehicle. The offenders, Hursit
HAN, his brother Sükrü HAN, SevketÇAGIRTEKEN, Hasan YILMAZ, Muhittin
ARSLAN, Mustafa HANIFIOGLU,
Mehmet Sait TURGUT, Halil GÜNES,Nusrettin HAN, Osman ABDULLAH,
Mehmet ALAKEL, Mehmet KARABAG,
Sükrü ÇAGIRTEKIN, Idris ÇAGIRTEKIN
and the Iranian nationals, Süleyman
Ferhadi GHOLANJI, Fardin AMJAD,
Ramin GANIZADE, Mohammed Ali
MAGHSOUDI, Hokmali Ghanizadeh
DIZAH and Ahmet REGIKALES wereapprenended in connection with the case.
During the interrogation Hursit HAN said
he had some acetic anhydride stashed on a
farm in nearby Sapanca, Sakarya. The
farm was stormed on that information andsearched, which resulted in discoveries ofsome 6831 of acetic anhydride along withlab equipment used in heroin production
and a tabulating machine to press the
manufactured heroin.

194