'Giant' operation in 17 provinces: 45 people arrested

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that 1 ton 331 kilograms of narcotics, 9 million 258 thousand cannabis and skunk plants, and 4 thousand 481 drug pills were seized, and 103 drug dealers were caught in the "Narkoçelik-29" operations organized against drug traffickers in 17 provinces.

Minister Yerlikaya stated in his post on his social media account that the operations were carried out under the coordination of the Gendarmerie General Command's Department of Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime by the provincial gendarmerie command teams in Adana, Antalya, Aydın, Bingöl, Diyarbakır, Edirne, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Konya, Kilis, Malatya, Ordu, Sakarya, Samsun, Siirt, and Van.

Reporting that 45 of the 103 drug dealers detained were arrested and 36 were released under judicial control conditions, Yerlikaya said, "We are determined to cleanse our country of drug traffickers and street dealers. I congratulate our heroic Gendarmerie who carried out the operations."