10. DRUG MARKETS

10.1. Availability and Supply

In the illicit drug trade traffic, Turkey undergoes the adverse effect of the traffic of opium and opiates (heroin, opium, morphine) from east to west and the traffic of chemical substances leaded by synthetic drugs, cocaine and acetic anhydride from west to east. This effect means that the drug come closer to the individual.

10.1.1 Geographical Location of Turkey in Terms of Drug Routes

Three main drug routes causing adverse effects on Turkey and the region around it can be mentioned. These are Balkan Route, Northern Black Sea Route and Eastern Mediterranean Route.

Balkan Route causing adverse effects on Turkey in terms of drugs starts from hashish cultivation areas in Southwest Asia, going through the territory of Iran and Turkey and is divided into to arms in Balkan Peninsula. One arm reaches to Germany going through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria (North Arm) and the other reaches Western Europe mainly by sea through Turkey and Greece (South Arm).

Moreover, Turkey is subject to a two-way current, being affected by the traffic of natural drugs from east to west while it is under the adverse effect of the traffic of chemical and synthetic drugs from west to east. The destinations of the chemical and synthetic substances coming through Europe and Russia are respectively illegal drug factories in Southwest Asia, and Middle East countries and Turkey.

Among these routes, Balkan Route has been on the agenda due to significant drug seizures by Turkish National Police. However, this does not mean that the other routes are less active. Traf-ficking of opiate from the countries of origin to market countries without going through Turkey is a common method. Consequently, with the analysis of the data obtained from intelligence resources by the General Command of Gendarmerie in 2005, in the operations carried out in Romania and Austria with the cooperation of Turkish, German, Austrian and Romanian authorities, seizure of a total of 429 kg heroin sets a good example for this case when it was found that this heroin passed through Black Sea, entered in this country from Ukraine and was about to be transferred to western European countries after being stored in this country. Besides, the extent of opiate trafficking by se-a from the regions of manufacture to the regions of consumption is unknown.

10.1.2. Evaluation In Terms of Main Drugs Affecting Turkey

When the drug events in Turkey are evaluated, three main drugs are noted to be the focus of international trafficking. These are opiate, amphetamine derivatives and cocaine.

It is known that opium enters our country through the provinces of Agri, Van and Hakkari lo-cated in the eastern region of our country by illegal means. There have been decreases in the amo-unt of the opium seized in Turkey since 2003 and the opium coming to Turkey is either consumed by the users in our country or transported to America and Germany both by cargo and couriers. In 2005, it was realized that opium was transported to Europe and America by cargo in the events which mostly Iranian suspects are involved in.

Morphine base also enters Turkey through the provinces of Agri and Van located in the eas-tern region of Turkey. When we look at the amount of morphine base according to years, it is seen that the amount is not adequate to produce high amounts of heroin.

Heroin is mostly seized among opium and opiates in Turkey. Heroin enters the country espe-cially through the provinces of Van and Hakkari by illegal means where the control is difficult due to mountainous geography.

Heroin leaves our country by sea from the seaports in Izmir and Istanbul, which are the gates to Europe, by couriers from Atatürk Airport in Istanbul and through overland through the land bor-der crossings in Edirne and Kirklareli.

In recent years, there have been significant increases in the amount of synthetic drugs seized in our country. Captagon comes to Turkey from Eastern European countries and enters the country by illegal means through the land border crossings in Edirne and Kirklareli and leaves the country through Kilis and Hatay located in the southern region of Turkey so as to go to Middle East countri-es. Since 2002, a small number of illegal synthetic drug factories manufacturing pills have been de-tected in our country. There were two illegal captagon manufactures being in Kocaeli in 2002 and in Kayseri in 2003.

Ecstasy enters Turkey from Western European countries especially from Belgium and Nether-lands by illegal means and enters the country illegally through Edirne located in the western region of Turkey by means of lorries, passenger vehicles and by seaports. Trafficking of ecstasy is carried out in line with the use in our country, which means that Turkey as a transit country for captagon be-comes a target country for ecstasy.

When we look at cocaine, it is noted that the importance of Iran among the countries in the re-gion has increased. Cocaine seizure, which was thought to have brought to Turkey from Iran, in Hakkari province bordering to Iran was interesting. Moreover, in April 2004 in Hatay bordering to Syria, 42 kg of cocaine were seized. With a successful operation 42 kg of cocaine with Bolivia ori-gin were seized in a container to go to Bandar Abbas port of Iran.

10.1.3. Evaluation In Terms of Chemical Substances Used in Drug Production

In recent years, there have been significant decreases in the seizures of acetic anhydride which plays an important role in heroin production. Acetic anhydride, which is mostly trafficked from European countries, used to enter the country through Edirne located in the western region of the country or through Zonguldak and Samsun by sea passing through Russia and Ukraine and it is fo-und out that it leaves the country from Van located in the eastern region.

However, on the contrary of the decrease in the seizures of acetic anhydride, there have be-en increases in the seizures of precursor chemicals used in the production of synthetic drugs. As a result of the operations and the intelligence resources, it is found out that precursor chemicals used in the production of synthetic drugs enter the country through Edirne by illegal means and it is trans-ferred to Middle East countries through Hatay and Kilis.

In 2005, 4300 kg of formamide were seized in the secret sections of a lorry driven by a Mace-donian, having a Macedonian plate at lpsala border crossing in Edirne. Similarly, 27 litres of BMK in Kilis bordering to Syria and 790 litres of formamide in Hatay were seized. Other characteristics of the provinces of Hatay, Kilis and Gaziantep, where there are more trafficking issues occur, are the close commercial relations of the citizens living in these cities with Syria and the proximity of these cities to Arabian countries, which are the consumption areas of captagon.

10.2. Seizures

As a result of the efficient fight against drug trafficking in the region where Turkey is located, its high capacity of technological operations and the importance it attaches to international operati-ons and cooperation, many drug trafficking organization have been deciphered, the suspects have been seized and many people have been prevented from getting harmed by drug use. (Table-3).


When we examine the date in the table titled "Drug Seizures and Events in 2005" from Tur-kish National Police, Undersecretariat of Customs and the General Command of the Gendarmerie, the profile of demonstrating the number of seizures of illicit drugs and their amount in 2005 in our country can be noted.

Within this context; as a result of the operations carried out by the Police, the Gendarmerie and Customs Organizations, 13719,92 kg of hashish were seized by 3682 seizures.

8172,76 kg of heroin were seized in 1381 events.

81,09 kg of cocaine were seized in 461 events.

41,48 kg of amphetamine were seized in 2 events.

6404923 tablets of captagon were seized by 97 seizures.

It is put forth that 1748799 tablets of ecstasy were seized with 1893 seizures.

When the table titled "Reports/Arrests for Drug Law Offences" and the data obtained from Tur-kish National Police, the General Command of the Gendarmerie and Directorate General for Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime; the number drug-related use was 6350 and the number of drug-related smuggling was 6879 and the total number of crimes regarding these issues was 13229 in 2005.

When both the aspects of use and smuggling are taken into account, among drug-related cri-mes committed in 2005, "Hashish" has been the substance for which the highest number of crimes has been committed and it is followed by Ecstasy, Heroin, Cocaine, Captagon and Amphetamine respectively.

Turkey seized equivalent amount of heroin with that of 25 EU countries in 2004. Among inter-national reports, this was mentioned in paragraph 4 under the title of Fight Against Drugs on page 132 of EU 2005 Regular Report as "Turkish National Police and the Gendarmerie carried out seve-ral successful operations on the fight against drug trade. It was noted that record amount of heroin was seized in Turkey. Many controlled deliveries were conducted leading to high amount of confis-cation in cooperation with police forces in member states. Turkish law enforcement officers started to use more sophisticated investigation techniques aiming to dissolve smuggling networks instead of arresting people only."

Moreover, it was stated in European Council May 2006 Report that "Turkey seized %15, Iran seized 8°/0 and Pakistan seized 6`)/0 of the heroin all over the world in 2004. Special importance must be attached to Turkey for all the relations in the future. Turkish Law Enforcement Officers make ef-forts to share a higher level of intelligence/information with other European Union countries on fight against organized crimes. European Union needs to seek for collective methods to encourage this."

Turkey has been the target of the actions of terrorist organizations in the past as well as to-day. As a result of the fights carried out successfully, taking place in every stage (production, trans-port, mediation, sale, street sale etc.) of drug smuggling of terrorist organizations, Turkey found out that they are provided with financial support. It was detected that PKK/KONGRA-GEL terrorist organization is in close cooperation with drug organizations for the transport of drugs to European countries.

3 tons 710 kilograms of heroin, 108 kilograms of hashish, 4 tons 305 kilograms of morphine base, 2 tons 127 kilograms and 2.484.003 of cannabis root, 26 tons 190 litres of acetic anhydride, 710 kilos of cocaine, 8 kilograms of opium gum, 19 heroin residues, 277.030 synthetic tablets, 1 ton 80 kilograms of sodium carbonate and 2 drug factories have been seized since 1984 in 333 drug smuggling events which are detected to be related to terrorist organizations.

10.3. Price/ Purity

10.3.i. Retail Sale Prices

When we examine the data obtained from the table titled "Prices in Euros at Street Levels of Illicit Drugs" (Standard Table 16) from Turkish National Police, Directorate General for Anti-Smugg-ling and Organized Crime, Central Department for Fight Against Narcotics Crimes, it can be noted that the price of one gram Hashish Powder varies between three to four Euros, one gram Gubar Hashish is two Euros, the price of one gram Brown Hashish varies between seven to nine Euros, one gram Cocaine is 44 to 56 Euros, 1 tablet Captagon is one to two Euros and one table Ecstasy is three to four Euros.

10.3.2. Purity Ratios

When the data obtained from the table (Standard Table 14) titled " Purity at Street Level of II-licit Drugs" from Criminal Police Laboratories of the Police and the Gendarmerie, the average purity of 131 gubar hashish that was seized in the Gendarmerie Region at street level was detected to be 0,37/0. In 562 brown heroin seizure in the Gendarmerie Region, average purity was detected to be 51,56°/0, in 9 brown heroin seizures in Police Region the purity was found to be 47/0. In 84 amphe-tamine seizures in the Police Region, it was noted that the purity was 32,5%

When the data obtained from the table titled "Composition of Tablets Sold As Illicit Drugs" (Standard Table 15) by the Criminal Police Laboratories of the Police and the Gendarmerie, in 27 seizures in the Gendarmerie Region, it was found out that MDMA was 37,58%, in 295 seizures in Police Region MDMA was 28%, MDEA was 19"Yo, MDA was 10%, the combination of these three substances was 19% and amphetamine was 8%