Digital execution market: Lynching for 800 liras, death for 5 million liras

Exclusive investigation: Meltem Suat

Turkey has awakened to a new and dark era where bullets on the street are fired not from barrels, but from smartphone screens. A digital crime ecosystem that has replaced traditional criminal hierarchies, operating with the discipline of "half upfront, half upon completion," has turned the streets of Istanbul into execution ranges.

This investigation, which infiltrated the encrypted Telegram rooms of motorcycle gangs such as "Daltonlar" (The Daltons) and "Redkitler" (The Daltons/Lucky Lukes), proves in all its nakedness how crime has become retail, how weapons are marketed like e-commerce products, and how a generation is being turned into "expendable pawns."

FROM BATMAN TO MOSCOW: THE "SUBCONTRACTED CRIME" EMPIRE

Istanbul's established crime map has undergone a radical change in recent years. Old-school "heavyweight" hierarchies have been replaced by license-plate-free motorcycles, masked hitmen, and anonymous digital networks. The architect of this transformation is Beratcan Gökdemir (Can Dalton), born in 1997 in Batman, who brought the "Uberization" model to the criminal world.

Gökdemir dismantled the classic mafia structure and designed crime as an "orderable service."

The fact that he managed his criminal network by "remote control" from Moscow even while being sought with a Red Notice showed how reckless the structure had become. The retaliatory attack on the Iraqi Consulate following the capture and extradition of the organization's second-in-command, Timocan, from Iraq, documented that this structure is not just a street gang, but a paramilitary criminal apparatus that directly challenges state authority.

This structure, which appears behind every stone from the Dilan Polat case to the murder of Serdar Öktem, has now become one of Turkey's biggest security crises.

HUMAN RESOURCES – WHERE DO THESE KIDS COME FROM?

In this system where million-lira tenders are handled, the "pawns" (Redkit 8, 10) who pull the trigger do not fall from the sky. The organization feeds its human resources from two main veins, like a professional HR department:

1. TikTok Algorithm and "Digital Slums": The organization recruits its human resources from Istanbul's most socio-economically vulnerable neighborhoods (Esenyurt, Bağcılar, Gazi Mahallesi). Luxury vehicles, stacks of cash, and clips decorated with "gold-plated" weapons served via TikTok and Instagram act as a "magnet." Once a young person watches these videos, the algorithm floods them with similar content, presenting crime as a "success story."

2. The "Illusion" Created by "Racon" (Code of Honor) Series: The "mafia series" that have been breaking ratings records in Turkey for the last 20 years have created an invaluable "cultural infrastructure" for these criminal organizations.

3. Heroization: The fact that characters in these series provide justice with weapons has created a perception of "justice independent of the state" among the youth.

4. Jargon Transfer: Concepts we see in correspondence such as "Racon" (Code of Honor), "Emanet" (The Trust/Weapon), and "Bedel" (The Price) were carried directly from these productions to the street, and from there to Telegram rooms.

5. Making Hitmanship "Cool": Because death is presented as an "honorable end" in these series, young people between the ages of 15-20 think they are a "series character" while pulling the trigger for the price of a dinner (2000 TL). In reality, however, they are just "disposable" pawns of the holding.

THE BARGAIN IN THE COSMIC ROOM – "HOW MUCH IS A HAND GRENADE?"

To verify the functioning of the system, we infiltrated the main vein of the organization disguised as a "customer." The "sales representative" we faced responded to the negotiation for throwing a hand grenade at a shop with the cold-bloodedness of a professional "service provider" rather than a criminal:

Journalist: "Hi, we have a job. The target is a shop in Istanbul. A hand grenade will be thrown in the evening. Is the price on the tariff valid?"

Organization Manager: "Where is the location, brother? What is the security density or camera situation at the target building? An empty shop is 200,000 TL. But if you say 'let it be a message,' let it make noise, the risk increases, the price changes. Our rule is clear: Half of the fee is upfront, half upon completion. We go through Akbank transfer or production crypto. Send the location, let the kids do reconnaissance. The video of the job will drop into the group, you approve it, and you transfer the rest. We are not mafia, we are businessmen."

BLOODY MENU: THE RETAIL ERA OF VIOLENCE AND THE DIGITAL LYNCHING EXCHANGE

Intra-organizational correspondence proves how crime has become a commercial commodity and that the era of "retail violence" has begun. In the "Bloody Menu" prepared by the organization, there is a clear price tariff determined according to the nature and risk ratio of the actions.

According to the correspondence of organization members, that dark tariff, which includes a crime item for every budget, is as follows:

Intentional Killing: 5,000,000 TL (Execution with guaranteed result)

Attack with Hand Grenade: 200,000 TL (Creating chaos and fear in a residential area)

Digital Lynching (Violation of Personal Data): 800 TL (Spreading the target number and systematic harassment)

One of the most shocking data points in the file is the 800-lira "digital lynching" fee.

The cost of targeting a person by sharing their mobile phone number in Telegram groups with thousands of people, trapping the person in cyberbullying, and paralyzing their social life has fallen below the price of a dinner today. This figure certifies that crime is not only managed with professional holding discipline but has also turned into an "accessible" threat mechanism that seeps into everyday life.

WEAPONS AND DRUG EXCHANGE – "EX-STOCK" ARSENAL

The seized digital materials and arsenal images reveal the organization's operational dominance in the underground arms market. Unlicensed firearms are listed with the meticulousness of an e-commerce platform, along with their technical specifications and price tags. According to the data in the file, the fact that models like "Yavuz 16" are offered for "ex-stock sale" at fixed prices like 19,000 TL documents the accessible scale that illegal arms procurement has reached. Drug trafficking is also managed simultaneously in the same digital networks; a 200 TL drug request and a 50,000 TL arms negotiation are carried out within the same ecosystem, far from oversight.

BETTING SITE SOFTWARE AND 10,000 EURO "VIP" ESCAPE LINE

The organization's financial and logistical structure grows by supporting the criminal economy with technological infrastructures. "Illegal betting site setup" and software services marketed through Telegram channels are used as a strategic channel for laundering dirty money obtained from crime.

The "evacuation" process that kicks in after crimes are committed is managed with the discipline of a professional travel agency.

The price of escape routes, where "guaranteed passage" to Europe is promised with sealed truck trailers and speedboats, has been set by the organization at 10,000 Euros. The transport of individuals who know how to use weapons to Europe as "operational personnel" in fugitive shipment advertisements reveals the cross-border dimension of the crime.