Turkey

Drug Enforcement

The Turkish government has indeed developed more comprehensive approaches to drug enforcement in recent years and delegated several agencies within the Ministry of the Interior responsible for drug enforcement and counternarcotic operations within Turkey. Such agencies have included the Department of Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime of the Turkish National Police (TNP), the Jandarma, a paramilitary police organization, and the Coast Guard.

The TNP has responsibility for law enforcement in Turkey's cities and towns while the Jandarma primarily oversees law enforcement in rural regions. Together, the two agencies remain dedicated to combating the narcotics trade. From 1983 to 2007, for example, an official government report noted that Turkish security forces had seized more than four tons of heroin, 22 tons of hashish, and 710 kilograms of cocaine from terrorist-affiliated organizations.

The TNP also sponsors extensive counternarcotics programs and training exercises on drug trafficking enforcement and interdiction for both Turkish and foreign nationals at TADOC. For example, in 2008 TADOC facilitated 64 training programs for 2,597 local and regional law enforcement officers. Foreign nationals participating in the training program originated from such countries as Azerbaijan, Guinea Bissau, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan. The focus of these trainings has involved exercises on intelligence analysis, and interview and surveillance techniques. Most recently, TADOC also hosted the XXVI International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC) in July 2008.

Aside from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Finance is also involved in combating narco-trafficking and manages a financial intelligence unit. This unit is referred to in Turkish with the acronym MASAK. It oversees investigations involving potential money laundering schemes associated with the drug smugglers and other mafia operations.

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