Looking to eliminate prevalent drug abuse and smuggling between Asian and European countries, Turkey continues its fight against illegal trade with dogged determination. Interior Minister Süleyman Basedlu told Anadolu Agency (AA) Friday that 3,759 suspects were arrested for drug-related crimes since January.

Basedlu says between Jan. 1 and Feb. 25, security forces carried out 27,667 counter-narcotics operations, detaining 39,508 suspects. “Sixty thousand of those remanded in custody are drug dealers,” he added.

In the past two months, police seized 10 tons of cannabis, 187 kilos of skunk – a cheaper, hybrid-strain of cannabis – 1,500 kilos of heroin and 4 million ecstasy pills. The interior minister says the number of those arrested in drug-related crimes increased in the past two years, from 23,134 in 2018 to more than 25,000 last year. As for the amount of seized drugs, Turkey seized 67 tons of cannabis in 2018 and 64 tons in 2019. Basedlu says they expect a larger amount of seizures this year for cannabis, skunk and meth based on their analyses and an international shift in the drug trade, reassuring that they had measures in place.

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https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/nearly-4000-arrested-in-two-months-in-turkeys-fight-against-drugs/news