FOREWORD

Our Units under the Department of Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime fulfil their powers and functions under their jurisdiction at the level of international quality standards, with over 5000 trained, experienced, qualified and outstanding officers, in (81) provinces and (31) districts, by fully abiding with the law and pursuing the principle of safeguarding and strengthening the individual rights and freedoms.

I, taking this opportunity, would sincerely like to congratulate the entire personnel of our Department for their sacrifice and efforts.

As is all known, the types of crimes and the methods used are changing in parallel to the advancements in technology... The criminals are getting organized, are cooperating with the foreign criminal groups and organizations and are operating at the international level beyond the national borders.

The Units under our Department combat various crimes from illicit drug trafficking to demand reduction for drugs, from financial crimes to organized crime and cyber crimes.

We are determined to continue our uncompromising efforts in the fight against organized crimes, which distort the trust between the state and the citizens, and all kinds of smuggling-related crimes, with a steadily increasing success trend, as was the case for the previous years.

In this respect, the modern investigative techniques, provided under our legal system, are applied by our professional officers; there is sharing of information and intelligence with the law enforcement agencies of the other countries and several successful controlled delivery operations are concluded.

Turkey has ranked among the countries reporting highest quantities of heroin seizures in the world since 2006. The quantity of seized heroin exceeds the total seizure by the 27 member states of the EU.-Thérecent progress report of EU for Turkey has addressed our success on the fight against drugs with compliments.

Drug-related crimes can be categorized under the following headings; a) Crimes committed under the influence of illicit drugs, b) Crimes committed to raise money for the supply of illicit drugs, c) Crimes of production, smuggling and trading of drugs for the direct supply of the drug, d) Finally, production and smuggling of drugs for financing and supporting other criminal activities, mainly terrorism.

In this respect, a major link has been identified between terrorism and drugs, also called as narco-terrorism, thanks to the successful drug operations of the Units of our Department.

Furthermore, operations were conducted for the seizure of weapons trafficked into Turkey from the north of Iraq, due to the lack of authority in the region. Besides, the relevant authorities of the seller and buyer countries are cooperated with in order to identify the origins of the weapons seized, to identify the defaulted parties responsible for diversion and to stop the flow at its source. Investigations were initiated on the defaulted officers.

Almost 5000 suspects were apprehended and major quantities were seized in 2007, as a result of law enforcement operations aganist domestic drug organizations, in other words the street dealers, being the target of the strategic mission of the Units of our Department since 2005 and poisoning the young people of our country by encouraging them in the use of drugs.

The institutional capacity of TUBIM, in charge of combating substance use and coordinating for these efforts at the national level, is being strengthened. Furthermore, TU1311^4 has enforced the national strategy paper covering 2006-2012 on combating drugs and drug use and has also issued the second national report.

There are efforts for restructuring in order to increase efficiency in combating cyber crimes targeting both the information technology systems directly and covering the exploitation of the weakness in the IT systems, as governed in the Turkish Penal Code under a separate section. The operations were extended following the establishment of the Division of Cyber Crimes and IT Systems under the body of our Department in 2003 and in istanbul in 2007.

Additionally, Witness Protection Law, aiming at secure and willful witnessing by the witnesses, as being one of the major players of a criminal investigation, is drafted in a manner to meet the requests and expectations of the Units under our Department. The law will be in force at the second half of 2008.

The Units of our Department have started the practice of conducting a second investigation along with the investigation of the predicate offence, aiming at the confiscation of the proceeds financing the crime, used in committing the crime and the proceeds of the crime. It is important to extend the dimension of this practice. Establishment of a separate division under our Department is almost concluded with a view to effectively fight against the proceeds of crimes.

In conclusion;

The 2007 Report presents an analysis of the national and international operations of the Units of our Department for the year and provides a systematic comparison with the data of the previous years.

The Report further outlines the training programs of the Department and the meetings, seminars and workshops attended.

The Annual Reports of the Department of Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime are used as a reference document by the national and international law enforcement agencies and the academic institutions in the studies and researches on trafficking and organized crime for over the ten years of its publication...

Ahmet PEK
Head of the Department of
Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime