High drug-trafficking areas mapped across Turkey, kept under surveillance 24/7

Fevzi Kızılkoyun – ANKARA

Turkish police have mapped out high drug-trafficking neighborhoods in 17 provinces across the country, which are kept under air and land surveillance for 24 hours a day.

Anti-drug teams have been assigned accordingly to the riskiest neighborhoods and intervene in a drug-related incident after obtaining aerial surveillance images from the police center.

Vehicles and individuals entering these neighborhoods are let in after an identity check and only if they give “consistent” answers to the police’s questions as to their purpose in the area and where they are traveling to. 

After the police have determined that drug takers and sellers have been entering these high-risk regions with taxis, they have started to warn taxi drivers about this issue.

“Following a risk analysis, we have determined that the drug trafficking in cities is concentrated to a specific region. Despite a lot of operations, drug sellers see these places as their ‘fortresses’ and they have a high chance of running away and hiding. With the newly started project, we have brought the entrance of drug buyers into their regions under control. Drug sellers will have to leave these places in time after not being able to find customers and that will make it easy to catch them [drug sellers],” said officials from the narcotics branch office.

Authorities have also started to conduct meetings with ministries and municipalities for the process of urban transformation to be initiated in the high-risk drug trafficking areas. Also, in order to prevent drug use, derelict buildings in the country will be demolished.

Meanwhile, gendarmerie forces in the western province of Bursa’s Mustafakemalpaşa district, seized 675 root cannabis plants worth 320 Turkish liras (around $90,000) after detecting it thanks to drones and land surveillance. Afterwards, the officials gathered around 250 people in a coffee shop and explained how the cannabis was turned into hashish to poison the youngsters.