Turkish prosecutors said Wednesday that 18 people were detained in Istanbul as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged drug-related crimes, with former national team footballer Ümit Karan among those taken into custody.
In a statement, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the operation was carried out by police anti-narcotics and organized crime units under an inquiry run by the bureau handling smuggling, narcotics and financial crimes. Prosecutors said the suspects are accused of drug trafficking, facilitating drug use, and “encouraging or mediating prostitution,” including allegedly providing locations for such activity, but did not detail the specific allegations tied to individual names.
Local media reported that Karan — a former Galatasaray forward who later worked as a coach — was detained at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport earlier this week.
The latest detentions follow earlier operations that have increasingly drawn in public figures from television, music and media. In a separate round of detentions announced days earlier, authorities issued detention orders for six suspects that included actor Oktay Kaynarca and singer Emel Müftüoğlu; some suspects were arrested while others were released under judicial supervision, with travel restrictions reported.
Reporting on the broader investigation suggests the probe has been running for months and has used forensic sampling as part of the casework, with some suspects in earlier phases released after giving statements and providing biological samples.
The widening net has also touched Turkey’s sports establishment. In recent weeks, the chair of the leading Istanbul club Fenerbahçe, Sadettin Saran, was questioned — and later detained following reported test results and released afterwards — as part of the same broader investigation, before the case continued under judicial conditions.
The celebrity aspect has sparked debate regarding both politics and policing. In late 2025, the arrest of prominent TV presenter Mehmet Akif Ersoy during an anti-drug operation was seen as a rare incident targeting a well-connected figure. This event suggested that the scandal uncovered factional tensions within pro-government media circles.
Officials frame the operations as part of an intensified crackdown as Turkey’s drug landscape shifts. A recent national police counter-narcotics report noted a year-on-year increase in drug-related incidents and highlighted the scale of nationwide enforcement activity.
Turkey is transitioning from being merely a transit corridor to becoming both a destination market and a production or processing hub, particularly for synthetic substances. Meanwhile, the country has seen a significant increase in drug-related deaths, reaching 427 in 2024, which is over a 40 percent rise from the previous year. Notably, synthetic cannabinoids and methamphetamine are frequently identified in these cases.
