The PKK terrorist organization ran a scheme smuggling prescription drugs from Turkey, police sources said on Wednesday, after 107 suspects, including doctors, were detained in a massive anti-smuggling operation on Tuesday. The terrorist organization is linked to a faction behind two recent suicide bombings in Turkey and is accused of supplying psychotropic drugs to would-be suicide bombers to keep them calm during their attacks, as reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA).
Police raided 266 locations on Tuesday in 32 cities, including Istanbul, to crack down on a gang charged with smuggling high-priced drugs, which they obtained using fake prescriptions and official documents. Suspects, many doctors, nurses and pharmacists, were allegedly working with the PKK terrorists currently carrying out a terrorism campaign in Turkey.
Police anti-smuggling units found 110,000 boxes of medication worth TL 40 million during their raids. The gang is accused of defrauding the Social Security Agency (SGK), which approves the provision of drugs to patients, of TL 250 million by effectively stealing the drugs through fake prescriptions.
Suspects were sending medicine obtained through these schemes, including cancer treatment drugs and antipsychotics, to Iraq and Syria, with the help of the PKK, whose militants and affiliates are active in both countries neighboring Turkey. AA reported that some drugs were sold on to international smugglers selling them in India, Uzbekistan and other countries, while the antipsychotics were supplied to suicide bombers.
Though the PKK does not openly claim responsibility for suicide bombings, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a faction linked to the terrorist organization, claimed a suicide bombing in Ankara that killed 37 people in February. Earlier this month, another member of TAK, a young university student recruited by the group, blew herself up near a mosque in the northwestern city of Bursa, killing herself and injuring several others.
Terrorist organizations are believed to feed antipsychotic drugs to potential suicide bombers. The drugs confiscated in Wednesday's operations include psychoactive drugs known for changing brain functions and causing alterations in perception and mood, which are useful to those directing suicide bombers to take their own lives. Sale of psychoactive drugs or their production is strictly regulated in many countries, including Turkey.
