Operation in 37 provinces: 259 people apprehended

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, in a statement on his social media account, noted that they had apprehended 259 suspects in operations conducted by police teams over the last 5 days as part of the fight against cybercrime, stating, "We have prevented our citizens from suffering financial and moral harm from cybercrimes such as fraud, child obscenity, and illegal betting that could have been committed through these individuals."

“We have apprehended 259 suspects in operations conducted by our police over the last 5 days as part of the fight against cybercrime.”

We have prevented our citizens from suffering financial and moral harm from cybercrimes such as fraud, child obscenity, and illegal betting that could have been committed through these individuals… pic.twitter.com/QFPoF6YZR3

— Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) January 19, 2026

Yerlikaya shared the following details regarding the operations:

"In our operations spanning the last 5 days, centered in 37 provinces and targeting crimes of 'Qualified Fraud, Online Child Obscenity and Harassment, and Illegal Betting,' 131 of the apprehended suspects were arrested, and judicial control measures were applied to 66 of them. Processing for the others is ongoing.

It was determined that the suspects defrauded our citizens using themes of 'product sales, account leasing, house sale fraud, and vehicle rental' via social media platforms and phishing sites; gained unauthorized access to our citizens' mobile banking and gaming accounts; facilitated and advertised illegal betting and gambling; acted as intermediaries for money transfers on illegal betting sites; possessed obscene images of children; and made posts regarding the sharing and querying of personal data.

As a result of the work carried out by the Cybercrime Combat Branches of the Provincial Police Departments under the coordination of our General Directorate of Security (EGM) Cybercrime Combat Department and MASAK; investigations have been initiated by our public prosecutor's offices against the suspects apprehended in operations held in Adana, Afyonkarahisar, Ağrı, Antalya, Artvin, Aydın, Batman, Bitlis, Bursa, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Erzincan, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gümüşhane, Hatay, Iğdır, Isparta, İstanbul, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kırıkkale, Kırşehir, Konya, Malatya, Manisa, Muğla, Niğde, Siirt, Sivas, Şanlıurfa, Tokat, Trabzon, Van, and Zonguldak."

News Source: İHA