Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on Tuesday that 101 people were detained and $43 million (808 million TL) were seized in a massive operation against illegal online betting. Authorities sought the arrest of 136 people and operations were underway to detain others.
Soylu said the “organizers” of the illegal betting network were people close to Halil Falyalı, a shady tycoon who was gunned down in Girne (Kyrenia) in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in February 2022 near his home.
Tuesday’s operations were the second in two months against the same criminal network. The minister said at a press conference in the southern Turkish province of Antalya that an investigation into the murder of Falyalı led authorities to another probe into “(money) traffic between TRNC and Malta.”
A financial crimes board assisted in the investigation and Turkish authorities started tracking thousands of accounts. Soylu stated that their investigation led them to 15 betting websites that operated out of Malta due to tax advantages.
“We found out that websites tried to lure people through illegal live streams of football matches, social media accounts, prominent social media personalities and unsolicited text messages, offering hefty earnings," he noted.
The minister said more operations may be underway based on the investigation while he pointed out the fact that in such operations, authorities have only been able to seize a limited amount of criminal revenues as cryptocurrency assets can change hands in seconds and can be transferred to other countries. “But our operations, based on longtime surveillance, allowed us to identify all revenues and suspects,” he added. He further noted that raids to apprehend the suspects were carried out in 19 provinces of Türkiye.
“Virtual betting, gambling and cryptocurrencies mean cash change hands hitting no obstacles around the world and this means a significant illegal infrastructure used by organized crime networks. Some countries, especially those with strong economies pretend to fight these crimes but in reality, they burden countries with medium-scale economies with this fight. Criminals operate in a wide geography from the Balkans to Malta and Cyprus and their activities seriously affect us,” the minister underscored.
