Turkey ranked the 12th country for criminality among 193 U.N.-member states in the Global Organized Crime Index 2021, receiving a score higher than any other county in Europe.
The index, published on September 28 by the Global Initiative Against Organized Crime to evaluate the levels of crime and resilience in all U.N. member states, assigned Turkey a criminality score of 6.89 out of 10, with one being the least activity and 10 the highest.
Turkey ranked higher than any country in European and Asia, according to index, with the exception of Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq, which scored 7.10, 7.08 and 7.05, respectively.
The country ranked 13th worldwide in the category of “criminal market,” with a score of 6.4, while scoring 9 in “human smuggling,” 7 in “human trafficking,” 4 in “flora” and 3 in “fauna crimes.”
Turkey placed at the top of the human smuggling ranking among 193 countries while sharing first place with Democratic Congo and Iraq in the category of arms trafficking.
“The illegal arms trade is pervasive in Turkey, with firearm use and arms trafficking on the rise in recent years. Overall, Turkey plays a role as simultaneously a source, transit and destination country to greater or lesser degrees,’’ the report said.
The report also said the country had become known as a mafia state, with increasing evidence on this matter.
“The Turkish government often leverages certain criminal markets, such as the gold and oil trade, human smuggling and arms trafficking, for its own benefit and political purpose,’’ it said.
“Turkish organized criminal gangs control the wholesale importation of heroin into Europe,” according to the report.
Heroin production is on the rise in the country, it said, citing an “increase in acetic anhydride seizures, a key precursor for processing morphine into heroin.”
Turkey sits along a well-known Balkan route for Afghan heroin destined for the European markets. Drugs have been smuggled into the country from Brazil and Colombia in recent years as the country grapples with serious challenges related to the illicit trade and use of narcotics.