Turkey: Report: Dec. 17 graft probe linked with trafficking of drugs, arms (as much as $19.6 billion)

May 08, 2014, Thursday/ 19:33:22/ TODAY’S ZAMAN/ ANKARA

The discovery by customs police of a large amount of heroin stashed in a truck back in 2007 clued police into a trail of money earned from drug and arms sales in an investigation that eventually branched out into the Dec. 17 graft operation, a Turkish daily said on Thursday.
 
According to the report in the Taraf daily, all the details of the corruption probe, which the government claimed was a coup plot, are present in the “Happani Group Assessment Report,” a report dated June 3, 2011, and prepared by a unit of the Bureau of Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime (KOM) of the National Police Department.   

Taraf reported that thanks to wiretaps conducted after the seizure of heroin in the truck, it was determined that a gang composed of both individuals and corporations laundered money illegally earned in Iran and Iraq in Turkey. 

The daily said the seizure of 202 kilograms of heroin on Feb 12, 2007, from a truck at the Kapıkule border gate in Edirne province laid the foundation for the graft probe that went public on Dec. 17.

Taraf, summarizing the Happani report, said: “That is, it was determined that money earned through the smuggling of arms and drugs in Iran and Iraq was laundered at some exchange offices in the Grand Bazaar [in İstanbul]. Durak Exchange Office and a person called Abdullah were identified as being among the first who were involved such transfers [of money].”   

According to Taraf, the sweeping purges in the police force that followed the Dec. 17 operation prevented police from going after heroin and weapons smuggles who were implicated in the probe.
“In the second and third phases of the [graft] operation, ‘drug and arms barons’ were also supposed to be arrested. But the operation ‘against the judiciary’ caused the part of the file dealing with drugs to remain incomplete,” Taraf daily said.

After the heroin was seized, İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office launched investigation number 2007/1258 into the heroin seized. As part of the investigation, a court order was obtained to wiretap the phones suspects in the case. “Wiretaps were carried out by the Edirne Department of Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime,” the daily said.   

The RotaHaber news portal published photographs of the operation in which police discovered the heroin on Thursday. Packages tightly sealed with scotch tape are seen lying in coffins taken from the truck.

In the search, conducted by customs police, Rotahaber said, out of 40 coffins on the truck, 29 had false bottoms. When the false bottoms were removed, 202 kilograms and 970 grams of heroin in 400 packages was discovered, the report said. The operation was conducted under the direction of Hanefi Avcı, then police chief of Edirne province, who was close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) at the time.    

According to the Taraf report, that investigation led the police to Reza Zarrab, whom the government has described as a philanthropist, and to the Happani family, which works for Zarrab. Zarrab is an İstanbul-based Azeri businessman of Iranian origin who was a major suspect in the Dec. 17 corruption probe.

In 2009 and 2010, the National Police Department reportedly received many letters informing about the issue. “For example, in a letter dated May 7, 2010, it was claimed that Reza Zarrab had laundered billions of dollars through exchange offices in [İstanbul’s] Beyazıt [neighborhood]. Based on this information, the number of people whose phones were wiretapped increased,” the daily said.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said at the party’s parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday that the Dec. 17 probe got started after police discovered heroin inside the truck at Turkey’s Kapıkule border gate, adding that the police had traced the heroin to a currency exchange office in İstanbul’s Grand Bazaar owned by an Iranian businessman.

That’s how the investigation started, the CHP leader had said. According to Kılıçdaroğlu, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) became aware that the allegations could harm the government and warned Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a report it submitted to the prime minister on April 18, 2013.

According to the report, as suspects — in which four former Cabinet ministers are also implicated — got wind of the investigation, the launch date of the operation was pushed forward, which also harmed the investigation into drugs and arms traffickers.

Wiretaps of the Durak Exchange Office at the Grand Bazaar, which the daily said is owned by Zarrab, opened the way for the police to uncover the corruption that was central to the Dec. 17 probe.

The daily said: “The connection with Zarrab was not discovered at the beginning. But, based on further investigation, police got on the track of Reza Zarrab and his driver Turgut Happani. That is, it is through the Durak Exchange Office that [police became aware that] Reza Zarrab and Turgut Happani were involved. Based on this information, [the phones of] Turgut Happani, Abdullah Happani, Serdal Happani, Şenel Happani and Reza Zarrab were wiretapped. The wiretaps led the police to Cabinet ministers in Ankara.”

The Hürriyet daily first reported on Dec. 21, 2013, shortly after the graft probe went public, that the Durak Exchange Office had led the police to launch the graft probe of Dec. 17, Taraf said. The Hürriyet story, which focused on Zarrab’s exchange office, said that the exchange office was used to launder as much as $19.6 billion.   

According to the report in the Taraf daily, following an investigation conducted by the Finance Ministry’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), it was said that Durak Döviz A.Ş., Tural Ltd., and Pırlanta Ltd., which are auxiliary firms of Royal Holding A.Ş., engaged in money laundering by exporting gold bars to Iran and Dubai. “That is, trade in gold was meant to launder money obtained by illegal means,” the daily said.