Around 200 detained in Ankara’s biggest anti-drug operation

ANKARA

Around 200 suspects have been detained after a huge dawn sweep marked as the city’s largest ever anti-drug operation by Ankara’s narcotics police on June 20, police have said, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.     
Ankara Police Chief Mahmut Karaaslan told reporters following the raids that the number of detentions was a record rate for a single police operation in Turkey.      

Around 3,000 officers split into 600 teams, backed by sniffer dogs and two helicopters, targeted 250 addresses across the capital simultaneously.      

Some 2,619 grams of hashish, 417 drug pills, 90 packages of heroin ready to be sold, 46 packages of crack cocaine ready to be sold, 12 packages of synthetic cannabinoid ready to be sold, 13 guns, 10 pump rifles and 30 handgun bullets of 9 mm in size were seized in the operation. 

Kararslan spoke about the importance of a WhatsApp crime report line used for the public in the fight against drug trafficking. He asked citizens to report drug-related incidents they face and see to the WhatsApp line. 

The raids were the result of a six-month investigation. The operation was named after Cüneyt Bursa, an Ankara police chief killed in last year’s coup attempt.