In response to the United Nations Workplace on Medication and Crime (UNODC), Turkey is changing into more and more concerned in international cocaine trafficking. From 2014 to 2020, the quantity of cocaine seized within the nation rose nearly fivefold. In 2020, about 2 tons had been captured.
Antoine Vella, a researcher with UNODC, advised DW that Turkish traffickers are buying a larger share of the European cocaine market, with Turkey largely used as a transit nation for cocaine destined for southeastern and jap Europe. “Massive portions have been seized in particular person instances, each in Turkey and in Latin American nations en path to Turkey in 2020 and 2021,” Vella stated.
A personal Turkish jet detained in Brazil is without doubt one of the newest occasions highlighting Turkey’s rising position within the international cocaine provide.
Paperwork and knowledge obtained by DW counsel {that a} Brazilian ex-military police officer named Sergio Roberto de Carvalho, often known as the Brazilian Pablo Escobar, could have been behind it.
Ex-presidential aircraft stuffed with cocaine
When checked by police at Fortaleza airport within the north of Brazil on August 4, 2021, the jet with the tail code TC-GVA, registered with the Istanbul-based ACM Air constitution firm, was discovered to be carrying 1.3 tons of cocaine.
Earlier than being offered to ACM Air, the jet had belonged to the Turkish state. In reality, it was the aircraft that saved President Erdogan’s life, offering him with a method of escape from the coup plotters in 2016.
The personal jet, from which 24 suitcases, every weighing 54 kilograms, had been seized, was carrying one Belgian-Spanish passenger and 4 crew members, all Turkish residents. Whereas the passenger named Angel Gonzalez Valdez died in custody as a result of a pre-existing situation, the Turkish pilot Veli D. was launched in Brazil, solely to be arrested subsequently in Turkey. Current documentation confirms that Valdez had terminal most cancers and died in custody on October 24, 2021.
Retired Turkish Air Power pilot Veli D. flew the aircraft seized in Brazil with a haul of 1.3 tons of cocaine
“I adopted the pilot’s orders”
In an unique interview, Maria Das Dores Goncalvez Cavalcante, lawyer for Valdez, leveled some critical accusations relating to the Turkish pilot. The Brazilian lawyer claimed her consumer Valdez had confessed to her: “On the hospital, Angel admitted he did not know a lot in regards to the operation and he simply adopted the pilot’s orders,” she stated.
After nearly 4 months in custody, the pilot Veli D., a retired Turkish Air Power officer, was launched in Brazil as a result of a scarcity of proof — solely to be detained when he flew again to his native nation on December 26, 2021, and charged 4 days later.
Sooner or later after the pilot’s arrest, Seyhmus Ozkan, the proprietor of ACM Air, was additionally thrown into jail in Turkey. That week, leaked photos of Ozkan with the Turkish inside minister, Suleyman Soylu, and Ethem Sancak, a businessman with shut ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had triggered a nationwide scandal.
Delicate paperwork
Investigations initiated after the aircraft’s seize proceed in each Brazil and Turkey. In response to paperwork seen by DW, the jet originated in Malaga, in Spain, and after clearing customs in Fortaleza, Brazil, flew to Ribeirao Preto, the place it was scheduled to choose up 4 passengers sure for Brussels. On the return leg to Europe, the aircraft was meant to cease as soon as at a minor airport in Portugal, nevertheless it was raided by Brazilian police in Fortaleza. The one passenger on board was Angel Valdez.
Workers with floor handlers Lider Aviacao testified that ACM Air insisted on paying in money. The staff, who said that money funds usually are not industry-standard, grew to become suspicious. Lider Aviacao staff additionally drew consideration to the truth that the Turkish jet taxied to a hangar aside from the one specified.
“Valdez confessed to me that he left €500,000 to his household in our assembly on September 29, 2021, a few month earlier than he died”, stated the lawyer Cavalcante.
In response to paperwork examined by DW, Angel Gonzalez Valdez, 61, had been bankrupt twice. He and his household led a humble life. So how did a humble engineer come to pay €160,000 simply to fly house from Brazil — after which depart half one million euros to his household?
Who’s the ‘Brazilian Escobar’?
In response to native media, the Brazilian police imagine Sergio Roberto de Carvalho, aka the “Brazilian Pablo Escobar,” is behind the group. Malaga, level of departure for the Turkish airplane’s flight to Brazil, is understood to be a base that he has used beforehand.
Carvalho, one of many world’s principal drug barons, trafficked practically 50 tons of cocaine to Europe between 2018 and 2021. The “Brazilian Escobar” was residing in Spain with a faux Suriname passport in the identify of Paul Wouter. Carvalho was detained as Wouter when the Spanish police confiscated a cargo of 1.7 tons of cocaine — in Paul Wouter’s identify — on a ship inbound from Suriname.
However since Paul Wouter had a clear report, Carvalho made bail after 4 months, paying a payment of 200 thousand euros whereas the case went via courtroom. After nearly two years, in August 2020, simply earlier than the courtroom was as a result of current its closing judgment, the lawyer for the “Brazilian Escobar” introduced the decide with authorized paperwork proving that Paul Wouter had since died. The case was closed.
In response to Brazilian media, Sergio Roberto de Carvalho had had cosmetic surgery and left Spain utilizing a distinct passport. Later that 12 months, the Brazilian police knowledgeable Interpol that Paul Wouter was Sergio Roberto de Carvalho. Interpol initiated simultaneous operations in Brazil, Spain, Portugal, United Arab Emirates and Colombia towards Sergio Carvalho’s group. As soon as once more, he escaped.
In his home in Portugal, the police discovered a number of faux identities and passports, in addition to a van stuffed with 12 million euros in money. Brazilian police imagine the van was meant as Carvalho’s exit plan, ought to the necessity come up.
Sergio Roberto de Carvalho, generally known as the “Brazilian Pablo Escobar”
International community to launder billions
One of many sources DW spoke to claimed that the three passengers who didn’t get on the aircraft on the final second had been associated to Carvalho.
The supply stated that the “Brazilian Escobar” is utilizing completely different firms to launder billions of {dollars}. Corporations utilized by Carvalho embrace Dubai-based PTW Normal Buying and selling LLC, Brazil-based Excelsior, Portugal’s Sky F8 and Notavelabadia Unipessoal LDA.
Sources additionally claimed that Carvalho was working with a well known enterprise particular person in Turkey to launder cash.
ACM Air staff contacted by DW didn’t reveal how the 160 thousand euros had been paid to the corporate.
Maritime shipments are the brand new favourite
Cocaine is trafficked to Turkey each through air couriers and maritime shipments. “Air couriers usually use Istanbul airport to land and should journey from South America in addition to Africa. The current enhance is probably going pushed by the maritime shipments,” Antoine Vella from the United Nations Workplace on Medication and Crime remarked.
In June 2020, 4,9 tons of cocaine, which was on its method from Colombia to Turkey, was seized at Buenaventura Port, the primary port of Colombia on the Pacific Ocean.
In February, roughly 44 kilograms of pure cocaine had been seized in a banana container sure for Turkey throughout inspections carried out on the port in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Ecuador’s identify happens very continuously in cocaine shipments to Turkey. The 1.3 tons of cocaine seized in Turkey’s southern province of Mersin in June 2021 had been additionally from Ecuador — the most important single haul of cocaine ever seized in Turkey.
Ecuador’s greatest port, Puerto Bolivar, can be owned by a Turkish firm named Yilport. The proprietor of the corporate, Yuksel Yildirim is one other businessman near President Erdogan. On a earlier event, 540 kilos of cocaine from Brazil had been confiscated by Turkish authorities within the port of Kocaeli, which can be run by Yilport.
An inspection in Ecuador revealed roughly 44 kilograms of pure cocaine in a banana container sure for Turkey
Home cocaine market additionally hovering
Turkey’s inside cocaine consumption is rising, however nonetheless pales as compared with European nations resembling Spain, Holland and Germany. In response to the UNODC, as of 2018, the prevalence of use was barely 5 per ten thousand head of inhabitants aged between15 and 64.
The variety of cocaine seizures, nevertheless, rose nearly fivefold between 2014 to 2017. UNODC information, which exhibits the extent rising from the 700s to just about 4,000, suggests {that a} important home market does exist. Turkish authorities arrested nearly 4,500 suspects in reference to cocaine-related offenses in 2020.
“It can’t be excluded that demand from an rising home market could also be contributing to rising flows in the direction of Turkey,” stated Vella. “These developments seem to type a part of a broader sample of enlargement of the cocaine market and diversification of routes and actors, noticed lately.”
The Turkish Monitoring Centre for Medication and Drug Dependancy (TUBIM), a unit hooked up to the Turkish Nationwide Police, didn’t reply inquiries regarding what number of tons of cocaine go via Turkey yearly, nor how the drug is distributed to surrounding nations.
Edited by: Lucy James