Turkey seizes its third largest cocaine haul

Turkish police have seized the third largest haul of cocaine in the country's history, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced, as groups monitoring organized crime warned that the country was becoming an entry point for drugs reaching Europe.

Some 608 kilograms of cocaine, most of it in liquid form, were confiscated in an operation across three provinces, Yerlikaya posted on the social media platform X. Nearly 830 kilograms of precursor chemicals used to process the drug were also seized.

Yerlikaya said the police operation targeted an international gang allegedly led by a Lebanese-Venezuelan national, who was among four foreign members of the "organized crime group" detained, along with nine Turks.

"The amount of cocaine seized in the … operation was the third largest amount of cocaine seized at one time in Turkey," the minister added.

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