Drug trafficking: Financial lifeline of PKK terrorism

ANKARA (AA) - PKK/KCK terrorism is intertwined with drug trafficking and other forms of organized crime, security reports obtained by Anadolu Agency show.

According to multiple reports and testimony by PKK terrorists captured by Turkish security forces, the smuggling and distribution of illicit drugs constitute a major economic activity for the group to finance its terrorist campaign.

The taxation of drug transfers across territories, as well as payments from traffickers and smugglers at borders, serves as a crucial income source for the group.

PKK activity in the international drug trade is hardly a new phenomenon.

Turkish authorities have been confiscating narcotics shipments and drug labs owned or operated by the PKK since the 1980s.

Interpol reports estimate that up to 80 percent of the illicit drug markets in Europe are supplied by the PKK-controlled trafficking network.

The PKK has reportedly financed its terrorist activities through the illegal drug trade since as early as the 1980s, participating in every stage of the supply chain from processing to marketing.

The European Police Office (EUROPOL) reported that the narco business generated an annual income between $1.5 billion to $3 billion for the PKK terror group.

The PKK especially abuses the addiction of young people in southeastern and eastern Turkey by making them drug addicts first and later ''rewarding'' them with more drugs only if they agree to take part in the group's terrorist activities.

The PKK flexes its muscles to be a monopoly in the narco-trafficking industry by eliminating other drug networks while simultaneously waging anti-drug propaganda to manipulate public opinion.

- PKK ringleader Ocalan's confession

Soon after his arrest in 1999, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan confessed to interrogators the terrorist group's drug trafficking activities.

"Drug [trafficking] is a crime against humanity. However, some of our organization representatives may have received money from drug smugglers under the name of donations. This is also the case in Europe. A large number of our members might be established in the European drug trade," said Ocalan.

- Major blow to PKK drug trade

In 2015, 34 terrorists were captured in an operation against PKK/KCK to remove barricades and establish peace and security in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. They turned out to be actively engaged in drug trafficking.

Some 50 kilograms of marijuana, three grams of heroin, two grams of cocaine, and 5,784 ecstasy pills were seized in these operations.

Fourteen terrorists, six of them dead, were neutralized in operation launched in June 2016 to eliminate the drug activities of the PKK/KCK in rural areas of Lice, Hazro and Kocakoy in Diyarbakir.

In that operation, 67.9 million marijuana plants and 17.4 tons of marijuana were seized by the security forces.

In testimony to the security forces, six PKK terrorists captured in the operation in Lice confessed that the PKK had a 20 percent share on cultivated marijuana.

In another operation carried out in a residence in southern Adana province in 2016, some 586 grams of marijuana, an unlicensed pistol and a fake identity has been seized. The suspect identified as a member of PKK/KCK was found to be the perpetrator of two separate attacks in Adana with an improvised explosive device.

Police also found out that the suspect was among the planners of a bomb attack on Adana chief public prosecutor's office in 2016.

In 2016 and 2017 operations in Diyarbakir, a total of 201.6 tons of marijuana and 81.4 million roots of marijuana plants were seized by security forces.

In July 2018, during Operation Euphrates Shield, the security forces stopped a vehicle en route from Manbij, Syria to Turkey. In a search, they found a total of 2 million drug pills in 20 packs stashed in the vehicle.

- Concrete drug-smuggling tunnels found in Afrin, Syria

During Operation Olive Branch launched by the Turkish Armed Forces in January 2018 in Afrin, Syria, security forces found concrete tunnels which the PKK used to smuggle drugs into Turkey.

According to security forces, the terror group shifted its drug trafficking activities to Manbij after the heavy blow it suffered in Afrin.

In October 2018 security forces impounded some 100 kilograms of heroin In in a truck in the Tusba district of the eastern Van province. The driver was detained.

Security forces also seized 511 roots of marijuana plants, 614 kilograms of powdered drugs, 5.3 tons of marijuana in Lice, Hazro and Kocakoy districts of Diyarbakir during the operation against the PKK terrorists in November 2018.

The fingerprints of one of the two suspects who were caught in possession of marijuana in an operation on Nov.16, 2018, against the drug dealers in Adana district, matched with the fingerprints that were found on a PKK improvised explosive device that was earlier seized in a separate operation in the same province.

- PKK drug trafficking activities in Europe

The terrorist group's links with drug smugglers in various European countries were explored in a report by the Turkish parliament's Drug Addiction Research Commission prepared following the commission's contacts in the U.K. and in Germany.

The report praised anti-narcotic operations carried out in Turkey which it said forced drug traffickers to seek alternative routes.

In September 2017, operations in Austria and Belgium led to the collapse of one of the PKK's drug networks in Europe. It was revealed that the network in Belgium used to push illicit drugs to half of Europe and transferred the drug money back to the terrorist group.