Turkish mafia

Turkish mafia (Turkish: Türk mafyası) is the general term for criminal organizations based in Turkey and/or composed of current or former Turkish citizens. Crime groups with origins in Turkey are active throughout Western Europe (where a strong Turkish immigrant community exists) and less so in the Middle East. Turkish criminal groups participate in a wide range of criminal activities, internationally the most important being drug trafficking, especially heroin. In the trafficking of heroin they cooperate with Bulgarian mafia groups who transport the heroin further to countries such as Italy. Recently however, Turkish mafia groups have also stepped up in the cocaine trafficking world by directly participating in the massive cocaine smuggling pipeline that runs transnationally from South America to Europe. They allegedly have a lucrative partnership with the Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization known as the Cartel of the Suns who ships them cocaine along with criminal elements from Ecuador. Turkish organized crime has pushed into less traditional cocaine markets as well such as into Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the wealthy petro-states of the Persian Gulf. Cosa Nostra and the Turkish mafia are also known to be very close. Criminal activities such as the trafficking of other types of drugs, illegal gambling, human trafficking, prostitution or extortion are committed in Turkey itself as well as European countries with a sizeable Turkish community such as Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Albania, and the United Kingdom.

Most Turkish crime syndicates have their origins in two regions: the province of Trabzon, Rize and Samsun on the Black Sea coast in northeastern Turkey and Eastern and Central Anatolia, think, for example, of cities such as the capital Ankara and Kayseri where the mafia plays a major role in the government. Other cities in Central Anatolia are engaged in harvesting and maintaining drug products. Many Turkish migrants from cities such as Central Anatolia often have the word to say in Turkish politics and in Western Europe among the Turkish community, think, for example, people from cities such as Kayseri, Yozgat, Karaman , Aksaray and Kırşehir . This is mainly due to the number of family members and the number of people who have settled in Europe. Often people from these mentioned cities also have strong ties with the so-called "Grey Wolves” which is an Ultra Nationalist movement in the Turkish community that is not only politically but also criminally active.