A police officer died on Dec. 8 after being shot and seriously wounded during an early morning drug raid in Istanbul, Turkish officials have announced.
Officer Emre Albayrak died of his wounds in a hospital. He was part of a special operations team carrying out the raid in the Çekmeköy district on Istanbul’s Anatolian side.
“Our police officer Emre Albayrak, who was seriously injured in a narcotics operation in the Çekmeköy district, could not be saved despite all interventions in the hospital to which he was taken and became a martyr,” Istanbul Governor’s Office said in a statement.
Ahead of a search of a residence in Çekmeköy as part of the ongoing investigation, shots were fired at law enforcement officers from inside the house.
The man who opened fire on police was killed and two other suspects were detained, the office said.
The drug suspect killed in the clash and responsible for the attack on the police officer had ten prior criminal records, the media said.
The 27-year-old officer, who lost his life at a hospital near the scene, was married and had started his service in the eastern province of Hakkari six years ago, serving in Istanbul since 2022.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a social media post on Dec. 8 that 970 suspects were in nationwide counter-narcotics operations over the previous week.
The minister earlier stated that in the past two and a half years, a total of 79 drug gangs have been dismantled in Istanbul alone.
Türkiye has experienced a rise in drug-related crime in recent years. There was a 23 percent rise in drug-related incidents last year compared to 2023, according to a National Police Counter-Narcotics Department report.
