Turkish police have seized 298 kilograms of cocaine at the Mersin International Port in the country’s south, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Jan. 15.
The container in which the narcotics were discovered was shipped from Brazil to Türkiye and was officially declared as carrying peanuts, the minister said in a social media post.
During the search, authorities uncovered 298 kilograms of cocaine concealed within the cargo, Yerlikaya said, sharing footage of the operation on the post.
The port in the southern province is the largest and busiest port on Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast, playing a critical role in the country’s foreign trade.
With an annual container handling capacity exceeding 2.5 million TEUs, the port serves as a key gateway to Middle Eastern, North African and European markets and is a major transit hub along the Latin America–Mediterranean shipping route.
“From the baron to the street dealer, our fight against drugs is a fight to protect all our citizens — especially our youth — from narcotics, which are a crime against humanity,” he said.
Türkiye has carried out a series of major operations targeting drug trafficking and organized crime throughout 2025.
In April 2025, the country launched what Yerlikaya described as the largest narcotics operation in its history, detaining 525 suspects in the capital Ankara.
The domestic crackdown followed Türkiye’s announcement of a sweeping multinational operation aimed at transnational drug syndicates.
Coordinated raids conducted simultaneously in Türkiye, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Belgium led to the detention of 234 suspects.
