Kindergarten teacher among detainees in drug gang bust in Istanbul

A female suspect (30), who was among five detained in a police operation against a drug gang on Aug. 24, has been determined to be a kindergarten teacher at a private school.

The suspect had been undertaking in courier services for the drug gang, according to police records.

Anti-drug enforcement units raided an address on Aug. 24 in Istanbul's Esenyurt district, seizing raw materials used in the production of Captagon pills, an amphetamine drug, upon determining the address had been newly rented by the suspects to produce drugs illegally. The amount of materials confiscated were capable of producing four million Captagon pills with a market value of 60 million Turkish Liras.

In the operation, the police confiscated 540 kilograms of raw materials for drug production, 60 kilograms of liquid chemicals, an oven used to dry drug pills, a grinder (to grind raw materials) and two precision scales.

The drug gang's activities were first monitored by the police over a three-month period. When the enforcement units determined the gang had initiated their first drug production, they conducted a raid, with the instruction of the Istanbul Security General Directorate head Mustafa Çalışkan, detaining Çetin B. (50), believed to be the gang's leader along with four others.

The police said the detainees Çetin B., A.A., E.Ö. and M.T.K. had many prior narcotic crime records, whereas the other detainee, the female kindergarten teacher E.Ö., did not have any, but had agreed to undertake in the gang's courier services.