Nearly 200,000 terror, drug raids in Turkey in 2018

By Muhammet Mutaf and Baris Yalcinkaya

ERZINCAN, Turkey (AA) - Turkey conducted nearly 130,000 operations against terror groups and just shy of 148,000 against drug trafficking in 2018, the country's interior minister said Friday.

Suleyman Soylu said the value of drugs seized in is around 3.5 billion Turkish liras ($656 million).

Drug-related deaths increase incrementally globally, he noted at a police training center in Erzincan province.

He said 268,000 irregular migrants were held in Turkey last year, underlining terrorism, immigration, irregular migration and especially drug trafficking in the 21st century seriously threatens humanity.

Regardless of being in Afrin, Azaz and Jarabulus city in Syria, Turkey would intervene where there is a threat without asking permission from anyone, Soylu said.