Police conduct anti-narcotics operations across Turkey

By Sitki Yildiz, Halil Demir and Mehmet Emin Gurbuz

VAN/ISTANBUL/BOLU, Turkey (AA) - Turkish police on Thursday seized a large amount of drugs during anti-narcotics operations across three provinces of Turkey, officials said.

In eastern Van province, anti-narcotics teams seized 81.92 kilograms (kg) of heroin, the local governor's office said in a statement.

The teams found 160 packages of the drug in a car they stopped at the Kurubas checkpoint. Police arrested three suspects.

In a separate operation in Istanbul's Bakirkoy, four suspects, including a foreigner, were arrested in an anti-narcotics operation, a police official told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restriction on speaking to the media.

On an intelligence tip-off, the teams stopped a car which had arrived from Bulgaria. They recovered 49.1 kg of cocaine and 17.25 kg of gold from it, the source added.

At another checkpoint in northwestern Bolu province, an anti-narcotics team seized 17.4 kg of heroin from the backseat of a car, police officials told Anadolu Agency, requesting anonymity due to restriction on speaking to the media.

The driver was stopped on his way from Istanbul to a highway close to Bolu city center. Police arrested the driver.