Two suspects were arrested in Istanbul for Sunday's killing of İlhan Ünğan, a suspected mobster who was wanted for the murder of the daughter of a rival mobster.
Ünğan was a defendant in the case regarding the murder of Arzu Zindaşti and her driver in 2014, allegedly over a dispute with Zindaşti's father, a fugitive drug baron. His brother Orhan was arrested and is in jail, while İlhan Ünğan fled. He was gunned down in Istanbul's upscale Bağdat Avenue while walking to his car where his wife and son were waiting for him. Police found the suspects in hiding in a house in the city's Sultangazi district. The gun used in the murder was found in their possession.
Two suspects confessed to the murder and said they located Ünğan with the help of the victim's fugitive lieutenant T.C. Media outlets reported that Ünğan fled to Belgium when an arrest warrant was issued for him and recently returned to Turkey secretly. He was carrying a fake ID when he was murdered. The murder is tied to Arzu Zindaşti's father Naci Şerifi Zindaşti, who went missing after he was controversially released following his capture in a crackdown on organized crime last year.
Zindaşti was also linked to the Dubai murder of Çetin Koç, an alleged drug baron who tipped off police about the former's drug shipment. Koç had alleged ties with Orhan Ünğan, whose lawyer Kudbettin Kaya was shot dead in Istanbul in 2017, days before he told a court trying the Ünğan brothers that he might "be killed" because of the trial. Orhan Ünğan told the court himself that his rivals "plotted to kill him or his brother" and has appealed for protection.
