ISTANBUL: The Istanbul Police Department’s narcotics unit and teams from the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) carried out a joint drug operation in Istanbul and in the southeastern province of Hakkari, seizing 346 kilograms of heroin.
They also detained 11 individuals, three of whom are foreigners, who were trying to smuggle the drugs from Iran to Europe via Turkey. These individuals were detained following simultaneous raids in Istanbul’s Silivri district and Hakkari’s Yuksekova district. Two of the detainees are Macedonian, while the third is Iranian.
One of the detainees was identified as Mehdi Serdar, the brother of Hikmet Serdar, who is claimed to be managing the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) drug trade and who fled to France after he was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
