November 26, 2025 • 23 mins
“The Turkish Mafia: At the Crossroads of Crime, Power, and Politics” explores the rise, structure, and global influence of Turkey’s underworld. From heroin pipelines and clan-based power networks to political alliances, nationalist connections, and modern global operations, this episode reveals how the Turkish Mafia became one of Europe’s most strategically placed criminal forces.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/mobstercastchronicles--6052763/support
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/mobstercastchronicles--6052763/support
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the deep Dive. Today, we are going
deep on one of the world's most powerful, but I
think it's fair to say most overlooked, organized crime systems.
We're talking about the Turkish mafia, and it's such.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
An essential topic because you know, to understand the Turkish underworld,
you have to look far beyond just crime. This is
a story that's woven into history, into geopolitics, and maybe
most disturbingly, into the state itself.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Absolutely. I mean, we all think about the Sicilian families
or maybe the Russian Bradfa, but the Turkish groups operate
at a strategic nexus that really few others can match.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
That's it right there. The key is Turkey's position. It's
the physical, you know, the symbolic bridge between Europe and Asia,
the ultimate cross roads exactly, and if you imagine any
kind of global flow, legal or illegal, it has to
pass through that corridor. So for criminals, that geography makes
Turkey the central hub, the main logistical point for moving
anything and everything.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So our mission today is pretty clear. We want to
understand how this criminal ecosystem grew, what its structure actually
looks like, because it's not what you think, and of
course how it got its global reach and how it
became so dangerously tangled up with state power.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And here's the first thing you need to grasp because
it changes everything. If you're picturing that rigid corporate like
hierarchy of say the Cosa Nostra, you know, with a
boss of all bosses, a chain of command, you have
to throw that out.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
So it's not one single organization, not at all.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It's a vast, sprawling, and honestly a sometimes very hostile
collection of different networks. We're talking about clans based on
region and blood, street groups and crucially factions that have
these deep, deep ties to ultra nationalist politics.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And what's in their portfolio today, what are they moving
through that choke point?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, they're the middlemen for everything. The sources are very
clear on this. We're talking massive drug smuggling, heroine traditionally,
but now more and more cocaine, human trafficking which has
just exploded, arms trade, extortion, and this really complex international cooperation.
They connect the dots between crime groups from Italy all
(02:07):
the way to Russia. They're the ones who make the
global illicit supply chain actually work.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
To really get a handle on that, though, we have
to go back, way back, further than the modern idea
of the mafia.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
We have to we have to start with the Ottoman
foundation for centuries. You know, the Ottoman Empire was huge
and central control was difficult. The Sultan could issue a
decree in the capital, but in the mountains of Anatolia
it was often meaningless.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Classic power vacuum.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
A profound one, and something always fills a vacuum.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So who's stepped in?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Local strongmen, and these weren't always governors sent from the capitol.
They were tribal leaders, powerful clans, regional bosses. They basically
ran their own little kingdoms, and.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
They controlled the economy, not just the politics.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That was the key. They controlled the flow of goods,
they collected their own unofficial taxes, They enforced a local
kind of justice, they controlled the trade routes. These localized
networks built on blood and loyalty. They're the real seeds
of the modern Turkish underworld. The blueprint was set centuries ago.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So the foundation is this tradition of decentralized regional power
where the local boss, reinforced by muscle, was the.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Law precisely, and that leads directly to the next crucial point.
For a lot of these communities, smuggling wasn't a crime.
It was just business. It was a tradition.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, that makes sense given the geography. People have been
moving goods to avoid taxes for as long as they're
in taxes.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
It's a centuries old reality. It was culturally ingrained, especially
in the border regions or along the Black Sea coast.
We're talking about illicit trade and everything from tobacco and
textiles to weapons.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So the key insight here is that it was culturally acceptable.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yes, for families living near these borders. It was just
an economic strategy, a way to survive. So the moral
judgment that we might apply today, it just didn't exist
in the same way. And that meant when the really
profitable global markets like Heroin urged later on, the infrastructure
and the community acceptance were already there.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
That's a fascinating transition. So the cultural groundwork is laid.
What was the catalyst then that turned these traditional strongmen
into sophisticated urban gangsters.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
A massive social shockwave. Rapid urbanization, mostly from the nineteen
fifties to the nineteen seventies, is.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
When millions of people are moving from rural anatolia into
the big.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Cities, an absolute flood of people, and they're moving from
these traditional clan based societies into the chaos of istanbul
Ankara Ismir. They ended up in these new, poor, neglected neighborhoods, which, well,
they became the perfect petri dish for organized crime.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Why were they so fertile for.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
It because the old loyalties came with them, but the
jobs didn't. So the clans and strong men who moved
to the city, they quickly figured out they could use
their networks to control the urban black market.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
And what did that look like? At first?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It started small protection rackets over local businesses, taking control
of illegal gambling halls and maybe most importantly, controlling the nightlife,
the cash rich bars and clubs.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So this is the blueprint then the transition from the
guy controlling a mountain pass to the guide demanding tribute
in a downtown neighborhood exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Those early street bangs laid the groundwork. They built the enforcement,
the money laundering channels, the local political connections, and that's
the structure that the global syndicates of the nineteen eighties
would inherit and then scale up massively, Which.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Brings us back to that key structural difference. It's clans,
not families. Let's dig into what that actually means on
the ground.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
The difference really comes down the loyalty. In say the
Sicilian model, a boss is a position he can be replaced.
In the Turkish system, power is often tied to bloodline.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
It's inherited, and that must make loyalty almost unbreakable.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It's absolute because you're dealing with your cousins, your extended family.
Betraying the boss is betraying your own blood. But it
also makes it really hard to have a single national organization.
The clans are decentralized. A plan from the Black Sea
might see a clan from the Southeast as a business
partner or a.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Rival, but never is their boss.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Never's their boss. They're equals at best.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
So what are the main regions that produce these power structures.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
The sources point to three main centers of gravity. First
you have the Black Sea region Trabzon Rise. Then there's
the southeast near the borders d' r Bakur Shandorfa and
then Central Anatolia around the capital Ankara, And of course
the Kurdish tribal areas are their own distinct power base.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, let's talk about the Black Sea guys. They have
this reputation right, the tough guys. Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Absolutely, the Black Sea gangsters have cultivated this almost mythical
reputation for being the most ruthless, the most loyal. Their
culture is all about family honor and immediate violent responses
to any disrespect.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So when they moved to the big cities, what was
their role? Were they the muscle?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
They were the muscle, the enforcers, the hit men. When
the big syndicates were forming in Istanbul, these are the
guys you hired to run your security, handle your collections
and resolve yourses. They were the violent, reliable core that
every big operation needed.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Okay, so that's the muscle. But for a global operation,
you need logistics, and that points us towards the southeast
and the Kurdish connection.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
This is their huge advantage. Kurdish groups, often organized by tribe,
historically control the cross border logistics. Their territory literally is
the eastern border with Iran and Iraq. It's a landscape
they know inside and out, and they've known it for centuries.
They mastered moving goods through those mountains long before anyone
was thinking about global drug trafficking. That knowledge of the routes,
(07:37):
the pathways, the corrupt officials, it became priceless.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So when the aroin trade exploded in the seventies and eighties,
they were perfectly positioned.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Their infrastructure was already built to move massive quantities of
product from Iran into Turkey, all insulated by tribal loyalty.
They were ready made for what became the Balkan rowe.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
And this is the moment, this is when the Turkish
underworld goes from being a local problem to global force.
It's all about the Balkan Route.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
That's right. If urbanization gave them organization, the Balkan Route
gave them international power. It's this criminal super highway that
turned Turkey into the single most important transit country for
narcotics heading to Europe.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Just trace that route force again, Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So it starts in Afghanistan with the opium production, it
moves through Iran and then enters Turkey's eastern provinces. From there,
it's shipped across the country, usually in trucks, into the Balkans, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania,
and then it just fans out into Western Europe and.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Turkey wasn't just a pass through. They were managing the
whole thing.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
They were the fulfillment center. By the eighties and nineties,
some sources suggest that Turkish groups controlled something like seventy
to eighty percent of the heroin reaching Europe. They were
refining it, storing it, and managing the entire logistical chain.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
But they weren't the ones selling it on the street
corners in London or Berlin.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Right, That's a really crucial distinction. They specialized in the
high volume, high risk part of the business, the transport
and the wholesale. They'd get it across multiple borders and
then sell it in bulk to local distribution networks in Europe.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
That's where the real money is.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
It's the most profitable part of the chain. You minimize
your exposure to street level arrests, but you maximize your
profit on every kilo.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
An operation on that scale must have required some serious
international partnerships. Who are they working with?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
They were strategically very flexible. In Italy, for example, they
had major partnerships with thendron Getta, moving heroin in via.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Sea containers and in bulkans.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
The Yugoslav Wars created a lot of chaos and they
leveraged that. They formed powerful alliances with Albinian crime groups
who were perfect partners for that final leg of the journey.
They also had working relationships with Serbian, Bosnian Bulgarian networks.
It was this seamless, multi ethnic pipeline that was almost
impossible for law enforcement to break.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
It really does sound like a logistics corporation. So if
we synthesize all this what made Turkey the trafficking powerhouse.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
It's a perfect storm. First, the geography you can't avoid. Second,
the deep internal clan networks that provide total trust. Third,
you have this huge diaspora across Europe, which gives them
the social infrastructure for distribution and money laundering.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And what about the state, were they just looking the
other way?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Well, historically yes to some extent. You have to remember
Turkey went through several military coups and periods of intense
political instability in the twentieth century. When the government is
focused on just surviving, oversight at the borders and ports
gets very weak, and officials become very vulnerable to corruption.
The door was wide open.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So while the international drug trade was making them globally rich,
they still needed to control things at home that gave
them the stability, the local power. Let's go back to
Istanbul and the nightlife scene.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Controlling the nightlife, especially from the seventies through the early
two thousands, was a core strategic goal. A nightclub is
just a business for these guys. It's a multipurpose asset.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
What do you mean by that? What are the benefits?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Well, first, it's an incredible tool for money laundering. These
are cash heavy businesses. It's so easy to mix dirty
money with clean money. Second, it's about access, access to
who to wealthy clients. Businessmen, celebrities, politicians. They all go
to these clubs and that makes them prime targets for extortion, blackmail,
or just gathering intelligence. The clubs are also hubs for
(11:28):
prostitution rings and drug distribution within the city.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I remember reading that a lot of the big bosses
got their start just running security for one club.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
That's right. It's how you build a reputation. If you
control a famous, glamorous club, you're seen as powerful, you
have influence. It gives you a direct line to powerful
people who might need a favor or who might be vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And beyond the clubs, there's the other massive domestic earner. Yeah,
illegal gambling.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Gambling is probably the biggest domestic cash cow. The government
has strict prohibitions, so organize crime just filled the vacuum completely.
They run everything from backroom poker games to huge sports
betting rings and now of course massive online casino platforms
that operate globally.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
The profits must be huge, but the violence associated with
it is notorious.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
The violence is non negotiable. I mean, when there's no
legal system to enforce a gambling debt, the gangs become
the legal system. Debt collection is brutal and it's public,
and that serves two purposes. You get your money back
and you reinforce your reputation for being ruthless, which makes
all your other extortion rackets that much easier.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Which brings us to the bedrock of their domestic power.
Extortion is disguised as protection.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
It's the foundation of everything. It's not just shaking down
shop owners. It's them acting as an alternative court system.
They resolve business disputes, They enforce contracts. The legal system
won't touch who is paying everyone. Restaurants, nightclubs, shipping companies,
and especially the construction industry. Construction is just perfect for
laundering huge amounts of cash, and it often involved government contracts.
(13:01):
So it's a key point of corruption.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
And this went beyond just business owners, didn't.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
It, Oh absolutely, The sources suggests it reached the highest
levels politicians, local officials. They all paid. They paid for security, sure,
but they also paid for political favors, for silencing rivals,
for getting things done outside the law. At their peak,
the big Istanbul groups operated so openly they really were
a kind of unofficial city government.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
This is where we get into the most disturbing part
of this whole story, where the Turkish underworld really becomes unique.
It's the overlap with politics and ultra nationalist ideology.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
This is the characteristic that sets them apart from almost
any other criminal group in the West. It's this toxic,
dangerous fusion of organized crime and a political ideology. For
some of these groups, their criminal acts are in their minds,
justified by a higher patriotic cause.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And that cause is often linked to the gray Wolves,
the bos Kurdler exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
That ideology gave them a pool of violent, incredibly loyal
recruits who didn't see themselves as just criminals. They saw
themselves as defenders of the nation, and that's what made
them so useful to what's known as the deep state.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Okay, let's define that term, the deep state. What does
that mean in the Turkish context?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
It refers to a kind of shadow network of elements
within the military, the intelligence services, as security forces. And
you have to see it in the context of the
Cold War, Turkey was on the front line against the
Soviet Union. NATO actually encouraged the creation of these anti
communist paramilitary groups, so called stay behind networks.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And these networks needed people who could operate outside the
law with total deniability.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Precisely, they needed to fight communists, Kurdish separatists, left wing activists,
and they couldn't use official forces to do it openly.
So the intelligence services allegedly started using these ultranationalist gangsters
as their proxies.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
What kind of jobs were they doing for the state?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
All sorts, targeted assassinations of journalists and activists, stirring up
anti communist violence in the streets, gathering intelligence, even handling
arms and drug shipments. To fund these black ops. It
was a deal with the devil. The state got deniable
muscle and the criminals got political protection, impunity.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
And this whole secret alliance just blew up in public
in nineteen ninety six with the susser Luck scandal.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Suster Luck is the moment everything came out into the open.
A Mercedes crashed near a town called suster Luck, and
inside were three people who should never ever have been
in the same car together, a senior police chief, a
member of parliament from the ruling party, and a man
named Abdullah Shapla. And Cela was Shotla was a notorious
mafia boss, a leader of the Gray Wolves, and a
(15:37):
wanted state sponsored assassin, a hitman.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
What else did they find in the car?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
It was a treasure trove, huge amounts of cash, weapons,
multiple fake passports and ideas for Shatlah, and official security
passes that linked him directly to top government officials. It
was just, it was undeniable proof right there in the
wreckage that the state, the politicians, and the mafia were
literally in bed together.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Let's talk about some of the figures who really embody this.
Let's start with a Latin Chakichi.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Chakachi is a classic example. His career is built on extortion, gambling,
and assassinations. But what made him so powerful for so
long were his very public, very deep connections to nationalist
political circles.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And those connections gave him a shield.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
They gave him protection from prosecution, They gave him leverage.
He could run his empire even from inside a prison cell.
He's the model of crime and ideology being used as
inseparable tools of power.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Now, let's contrast him with a more modern figure, so
Dot Peeker, a totally different kind of crime.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Lord Peeker is the social media gangster. He came up
in the traditional way through protection, rackets and fraud, but
his legacy is what he did after he fled Turkey
in twenty twenty one. He started releasing these slickly produced
bombshell videos on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And what was he claiming in these videos?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
He was naming names, He wasn't being vague. He was
accusing top level politicians and their families of being involved
in cocaine trafficking, murder, cover ups, deep corruption, detailed specific accusations.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
That's incredible. A mafia boss turning the secrets of the
state against the state itself.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
It completely flipped the script. Instead of relying on the
state for protection, he used the threat of exposure to
try and tear the whole thing down. It was a
viral digital version of the Suster Luck scandal, showing everyone
just how deep the connections really ran.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
This really shows their adaptability. Let's look at how they've
diversified in the modern era beyond just Heroin.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Their ability to pivot is incredible. Heroin is still a
core business, but they've expanded everywhere.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
What are the big new ventures.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Synthetic drugs are huge now, higher profits, easier to make,
and critically, they've moved into the cocaine trade in a
big way. They're using their logistical networks to move massive
shipments from South America through Turkey and into Europe.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And what about the human cost migrant smuggling.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Given Turkey's location next to Syria, Iran and the EU,
They've ruthlessly capitalized on that. They control key parts of
the human smuggling routes, moving desperate people for huge profits.
It's just another commodity for them.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And they're getting more sophisticated with financial crime massively.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
They're still in construction for money laundering, but now they're
running global online gambling sites. They're involved in cybercrime, data extortion.
The local gambling hall has become a global virtual casino.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
And their biggest asset in all this modern crime is
still the diaspora network in Europe.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It's their secret weapon. These communities provide the perfect cover.
They offer social installation, language skills, and a huge population
to hide their activities.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Within Which countries are we talking about?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
The sources always highlight Germany with its huge Turkish population,
but also Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden. The operations
there are comprehensive. They run drug distribution protection rackets against
businesses in their own communities and really effective money launderings.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
How does that laundering work?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
They use legitimate cash heavy businesses, supermarket chains, construction companies,
logistics firms. The drug money gets mixed in with the
daily revenue declared as legitimate profit and then it's clean.
The social infrastructure is the camouflage that makes it all possible.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And finally, on their adaptability, they're known as the ultimate networkers.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
It's the final piece of the puzzle. They are the
go to middlemen because they will work with anyone. They
are not ideologically rigid when it comes to making money.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
So who are their partners in crime?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It's a global rolodex. They work with the Italian and Jungata,
the Albanian clans, Russian mobs, Middle Eastern smugglers, even African
human trafficking networks. They're the universal connector in the world
of illicit trade.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Let's spend a moment on the figures who built this empire,
not just names, but chapters in this history. Do Nar
Khalich the original godfather?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Khaluch really defined that first generation of sophisticated bosses. He
dominated Istanbul and Onkura for deca gads. His world was
the classics, arms trafficking, high stakes, gambling, nightlife protection.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
What was his legacy?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
He professionalized it. He showed that to be a true
boss you needed both brutality and deep political connections. He
built an empire so strong that even when he was
in prison, his orders were followed without question. He was
the undisputed godfather of his time.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And then there's Abdullah Schatla, the Deep State assassin.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Shatlun is the ghost in the machine, the main character
in the Deep State story. He wasn't just a gangster
out for profit. He was an ultra nationalist operative using
crime to fund a political war.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
And his death in that car crash immortalized him.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
His death was the physical proof of the shadow government.
The fact that he died alongside a top state official
exposed the cold hard truth the state was hiring its
killers directly from the mafia and the far right. His
name is now just shorthand for that entire dark alliance.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
We've talked about, Shakichi and Pucker showing the evolution of
power from the old school enforcer to the new school
day digital whistleblower.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Absolutely, Shakachi's power came from political allies and raw fear.
Pecker showed that those old relationships were vulnerable. He used
a cell phone to expose secrets that have been kept
for decades. It just proves that while the tools change,
the entanglement with the political class is constant.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
But a key theme throughout this has been that this
world is not unified. It's decentralized, and that means constant
brutal conflict.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
That is the violent reality. Because it's all based on
clans and region and personal honor, the whole system is
inherently unstable. It's not one happy family. It's a constant
war for dominance.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Were they fighting over the.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Usual things, just amplified by clan loyalty. They fight over
territory and estembul. They fight over shares of drug shipments.
They fight when political alliances shift. If one boss loses
his government protection, his rivals move in for the kill,
and of course just personal betrayals and vendettas that can
last for generations.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
And what does that mean for the city?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Istempul's history is just littered with these public gang wars,
high profile assassinations, shootouts in crowded streets. It's a constant,
bloody reshaping of the hierarchy. It ensures that no boss
can ever truly feel safe.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So as we wrap up this deep dive, it's clear
that Turkish mafia is this unique mix centuries of smuggling tradition,
modern global logistics, fused with nationalists politics, built on clan
loyalty and enforced by brutal violence.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
It might not have the Hollywood glamour of other mafias,
but in terms of pure logistical power and strategic importance,
you could argue it's the most significant organized crime structure
in the world today.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
And why are they still so relevant right now?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Because they control the crossroads. As long as illegal things, drugs, weapons,
people need to move between Asia and Europe. The Turkish
mafia will be the essential logistical hub. They control the trickpoint.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
And they seem incredibly resilient.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Their resilience comes from that adaptability and their deep political roots.
Law enforcement puts pression on them, so they pivot from
heroin to cocaine, from a fi yusical casino to a website,
from political protection to public exposure. They adapt faster than
the people trying to stop them. They are deeply entrenched
shadow power, which brings.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Us to our final thought for you to take away
from this, We've established that the line between organized crime
and parts of the state in Turkey is at times
almost invisible, a shadow government.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
So think about what that means when crime and state
power are that intertwined. A political crisis in Istanbul doesn't
just stay in Istanbul. It directly impacts the flow of
drugs and the security on the streets of London, Berlin
or Paris.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
The power of the state is used to help the
black market.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
And the money from the black market in turn props
up parts of the state. The line between the street
and the state house is blurry until something like the
Susserlt crash makes the deadly truth crystal clear.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
The truly complex and chilling reality. Thank you for joining
us on this deep dive. We'll see you next time.
Welcome back to the deep Dive. Today, we are going
deep on one of the world's most powerful, but I
think it's fair to say most overlooked, organized crime systems.
We're talking about the Turkish mafia, and it's such.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
An essential topic because you know, to understand the Turkish underworld,
you have to look far beyond just crime. This is
a story that's woven into history, into geopolitics, and maybe
most disturbingly, into the state itself.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Absolutely. I mean, we all think about the Sicilian families
or maybe the Russian Bradfa, but the Turkish groups operate
at a strategic nexus that really few others can match.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
That's it right there. The key is Turkey's position. It's
the physical, you know, the symbolic bridge between Europe and Asia,
the ultimate cross roads exactly, and if you imagine any
kind of global flow, legal or illegal, it has to
pass through that corridor. So for criminals, that geography makes
Turkey the central hub, the main logistical point for moving
anything and everything.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So our mission today is pretty clear. We want to
understand how this criminal ecosystem grew, what its structure actually
looks like, because it's not what you think, and of
course how it got its global reach and how it
became so dangerously tangled up with state power.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And here's the first thing you need to grasp because
it changes everything. If you're picturing that rigid corporate like
hierarchy of say the Cosa Nostra, you know, with a
boss of all bosses, a chain of command, you have
to throw that out.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
So it's not one single organization, not at all.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It's a vast, sprawling, and honestly a sometimes very hostile
collection of different networks. We're talking about clans based on
region and blood, street groups and crucially factions that have
these deep, deep ties to ultra nationalist politics.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And what's in their portfolio today, what are they moving
through that choke point?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, they're the middlemen for everything. The sources are very
clear on this. We're talking massive drug smuggling, heroine traditionally,
but now more and more cocaine, human trafficking which has
just exploded, arms trade, extortion, and this really complex international cooperation.
They connect the dots between crime groups from Italy all
(02:07):
the way to Russia. They're the ones who make the
global illicit supply chain actually work.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
To really get a handle on that, though, we have
to go back, way back, further than the modern idea
of the mafia.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
We have to we have to start with the Ottoman
foundation for centuries. You know, the Ottoman Empire was huge
and central control was difficult. The Sultan could issue a
decree in the capital, but in the mountains of Anatolia
it was often meaningless.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Classic power vacuum.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
A profound one, and something always fills a vacuum.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So who's stepped in?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Local strongmen, and these weren't always governors sent from the capitol.
They were tribal leaders, powerful clans, regional bosses. They basically
ran their own little kingdoms, and.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
They controlled the economy, not just the politics.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That was the key. They controlled the flow of goods,
they collected their own unofficial taxes, They enforced a local
kind of justice, they controlled the trade routes. These localized
networks built on blood and loyalty. They're the real seeds
of the modern Turkish underworld. The blueprint was set centuries ago.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So the foundation is this tradition of decentralized regional power
where the local boss, reinforced by muscle, was the.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Law precisely, and that leads directly to the next crucial point.
For a lot of these communities, smuggling wasn't a crime.
It was just business. It was a tradition.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, that makes sense given the geography. People have been
moving goods to avoid taxes for as long as they're
in taxes.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
It's a centuries old reality. It was culturally ingrained, especially
in the border regions or along the Black Sea coast.
We're talking about illicit trade and everything from tobacco and
textiles to weapons.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
So the key insight here is that it was culturally acceptable.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yes, for families living near these borders. It was just
an economic strategy, a way to survive. So the moral
judgment that we might apply today, it just didn't exist
in the same way. And that meant when the really
profitable global markets like Heroin urged later on, the infrastructure
and the community acceptance were already there.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
That's a fascinating transition. So the cultural groundwork is laid.
What was the catalyst then that turned these traditional strongmen
into sophisticated urban gangsters.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
A massive social shockwave. Rapid urbanization, mostly from the nineteen
fifties to the nineteen seventies, is.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
When millions of people are moving from rural anatolia into
the big.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Cities, an absolute flood of people, and they're moving from
these traditional clan based societies into the chaos of istanbul
Ankara Ismir. They ended up in these new, poor, neglected neighborhoods, which, well,
they became the perfect petri dish for organized crime.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Why were they so fertile for.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
It because the old loyalties came with them, but the
jobs didn't. So the clans and strong men who moved
to the city, they quickly figured out they could use
their networks to control the urban black market.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
And what did that look like? At first?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It started small protection rackets over local businesses, taking control
of illegal gambling halls and maybe most importantly, controlling the nightlife,
the cash rich bars and clubs.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So this is the blueprint then the transition from the
guy controlling a mountain pass to the guide demanding tribute
in a downtown neighborhood exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Those early street bangs laid the groundwork. They built the enforcement,
the money laundering channels, the local political connections, and that's
the structure that the global syndicates of the nineteen eighties
would inherit and then scale up massively, Which.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Brings us back to that key structural difference. It's clans,
not families. Let's dig into what that actually means on
the ground.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
The difference really comes down the loyalty. In say the
Sicilian model, a boss is a position he can be replaced.
In the Turkish system, power is often tied to bloodline.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
It's inherited, and that must make loyalty almost unbreakable.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It's absolute because you're dealing with your cousins, your extended family.
Betraying the boss is betraying your own blood. But it
also makes it really hard to have a single national organization.
The clans are decentralized. A plan from the Black Sea
might see a clan from the Southeast as a business
partner or a.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Rival, but never is their boss.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Never's their boss. They're equals at best.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
So what are the main regions that produce these power structures.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
The sources point to three main centers of gravity. First
you have the Black Sea region Trabzon Rise. Then there's
the southeast near the borders d' r Bakur Shandorfa and
then Central Anatolia around the capital Ankara, And of course
the Kurdish tribal areas are their own distinct power base.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, let's talk about the Black Sea guys. They have
this reputation right, the tough guys. Oh.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Absolutely, the Black Sea gangsters have cultivated this almost mythical
reputation for being the most ruthless, the most loyal. Their
culture is all about family honor and immediate violent responses
to any disrespect.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So when they moved to the big cities, what was
their role? Were they the muscle?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
They were the muscle, the enforcers, the hit men. When
the big syndicates were forming in Istanbul, these are the
guys you hired to run your security, handle your collections
and resolve yourses. They were the violent, reliable core that
every big operation needed.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Okay, so that's the muscle. But for a global operation,
you need logistics, and that points us towards the southeast
and the Kurdish connection.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
This is their huge advantage. Kurdish groups, often organized by tribe,
historically control the cross border logistics. Their territory literally is
the eastern border with Iran and Iraq. It's a landscape
they know inside and out, and they've known it for centuries.
They mastered moving goods through those mountains long before anyone
was thinking about global drug trafficking. That knowledge of the routes,
(07:37):
the pathways, the corrupt officials, it became priceless.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
So when the aroin trade exploded in the seventies and eighties,
they were perfectly positioned.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Their infrastructure was already built to move massive quantities of
product from Iran into Turkey, all insulated by tribal loyalty.
They were ready made for what became the Balkan rowe.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
And this is the moment, this is when the Turkish
underworld goes from being a local problem to global force.
It's all about the Balkan Route.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
That's right. If urbanization gave them organization, the Balkan Route
gave them international power. It's this criminal super highway that
turned Turkey into the single most important transit country for
narcotics heading to Europe.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Just trace that route force again, Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So it starts in Afghanistan with the opium production, it
moves through Iran and then enters Turkey's eastern provinces. From there,
it's shipped across the country, usually in trucks, into the Balkans, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania,
and then it just fans out into Western Europe and.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Turkey wasn't just a pass through. They were managing the
whole thing.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
They were the fulfillment center. By the eighties and nineties,
some sources suggest that Turkish groups controlled something like seventy
to eighty percent of the heroin reaching Europe. They were
refining it, storing it, and managing the entire logistical chain.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
But they weren't the ones selling it on the street
corners in London or Berlin.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Right, That's a really crucial distinction. They specialized in the
high volume, high risk part of the business, the transport
and the wholesale. They'd get it across multiple borders and
then sell it in bulk to local distribution networks in Europe.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
That's where the real money is.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
It's the most profitable part of the chain. You minimize
your exposure to street level arrests, but you maximize your
profit on every kilo.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
An operation on that scale must have required some serious
international partnerships. Who are they working with?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
They were strategically very flexible. In Italy, for example, they
had major partnerships with thendron Getta, moving heroin in via.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Sea containers and in bulkans.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
The Yugoslav Wars created a lot of chaos and they
leveraged that. They formed powerful alliances with Albinian crime groups
who were perfect partners for that final leg of the journey.
They also had working relationships with Serbian, Bosnian Bulgarian networks.
It was this seamless, multi ethnic pipeline that was almost
impossible for law enforcement to break.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
It really does sound like a logistics corporation. So if
we synthesize all this what made Turkey the trafficking powerhouse.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
It's a perfect storm. First, the geography you can't avoid. Second,
the deep internal clan networks that provide total trust. Third,
you have this huge diaspora across Europe, which gives them
the social infrastructure for distribution and money laundering.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
And what about the state, were they just looking the
other way?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Well, historically yes to some extent. You have to remember
Turkey went through several military coups and periods of intense
political instability in the twentieth century. When the government is
focused on just surviving, oversight at the borders and ports
gets very weak, and officials become very vulnerable to corruption.
The door was wide open.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So while the international drug trade was making them globally rich,
they still needed to control things at home that gave
them the stability, the local power. Let's go back to
Istanbul and the nightlife scene.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Controlling the nightlife, especially from the seventies through the early
two thousands, was a core strategic goal. A nightclub is
just a business for these guys. It's a multipurpose asset.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
What do you mean by that? What are the benefits?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Well, first, it's an incredible tool for money laundering. These
are cash heavy businesses. It's so easy to mix dirty
money with clean money. Second, it's about access, access to
who to wealthy clients. Businessmen, celebrities, politicians. They all go
to these clubs and that makes them prime targets for extortion, blackmail,
or just gathering intelligence. The clubs are also hubs for
(11:28):
prostitution rings and drug distribution within the city.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I remember reading that a lot of the big bosses
got their start just running security for one club.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
That's right. It's how you build a reputation. If you
control a famous, glamorous club, you're seen as powerful, you
have influence. It gives you a direct line to powerful
people who might need a favor or who might be vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And beyond the clubs, there's the other massive domestic earner. Yeah,
illegal gambling.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Gambling is probably the biggest domestic cash cow. The government
has strict prohibitions, so organize crime just filled the vacuum completely.
They run everything from backroom poker games to huge sports
betting rings and now of course massive online casino platforms
that operate globally.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
The profits must be huge, but the violence associated with
it is notorious.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
The violence is non negotiable. I mean, when there's no
legal system to enforce a gambling debt, the gangs become
the legal system. Debt collection is brutal and it's public,
and that serves two purposes. You get your money back
and you reinforce your reputation for being ruthless, which makes
all your other extortion rackets that much easier.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Which brings us to the bedrock of their domestic power.
Extortion is disguised as protection.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
It's the foundation of everything. It's not just shaking down
shop owners. It's them acting as an alternative court system.
They resolve business disputes, They enforce contracts. The legal system
won't touch who is paying everyone. Restaurants, nightclubs, shipping companies,
and especially the construction industry. Construction is just perfect for
laundering huge amounts of cash, and it often involved government contracts.
(13:01):
So it's a key point of corruption.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
And this went beyond just business owners, didn't.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
It, Oh absolutely, The sources suggests it reached the highest
levels politicians, local officials. They all paid. They paid for security, sure,
but they also paid for political favors, for silencing rivals,
for getting things done outside the law. At their peak,
the big Istanbul groups operated so openly they really were
a kind of unofficial city government.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
This is where we get into the most disturbing part
of this whole story, where the Turkish underworld really becomes unique.
It's the overlap with politics and ultra nationalist ideology.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
This is the characteristic that sets them apart from almost
any other criminal group in the West. It's this toxic,
dangerous fusion of organized crime and a political ideology. For
some of these groups, their criminal acts are in their minds,
justified by a higher patriotic cause.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And that cause is often linked to the gray Wolves,
the bos Kurdler exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
That ideology gave them a pool of violent, incredibly loyal
recruits who didn't see themselves as just criminals. They saw
themselves as defenders of the nation, and that's what made
them so useful to what's known as the deep state.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Okay, let's define that term, the deep state. What does
that mean in the Turkish context?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
It refers to a kind of shadow network of elements
within the military, the intelligence services, as security forces. And
you have to see it in the context of the
Cold War, Turkey was on the front line against the
Soviet Union. NATO actually encouraged the creation of these anti
communist paramilitary groups, so called stay behind networks.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And these networks needed people who could operate outside the
law with total deniability.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Precisely, they needed to fight communists, Kurdish separatists, left wing activists,
and they couldn't use official forces to do it openly.
So the intelligence services allegedly started using these ultranationalist gangsters
as their proxies.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
What kind of jobs were they doing for the state?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
All sorts, targeted assassinations of journalists and activists, stirring up
anti communist violence in the streets, gathering intelligence, even handling
arms and drug shipments. To fund these black ops. It
was a deal with the devil. The state got deniable
muscle and the criminals got political protection, impunity.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
And this whole secret alliance just blew up in public
in nineteen ninety six with the susser Luck scandal.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Suster Luck is the moment everything came out into the open.
A Mercedes crashed near a town called suster Luck, and
inside were three people who should never ever have been
in the same car together, a senior police chief, a
member of parliament from the ruling party, and a man
named Abdullah Shapla. And Cela was Shotla was a notorious
mafia boss, a leader of the Gray Wolves, and a
(15:37):
wanted state sponsored assassin, a hitman.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
What else did they find in the car?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
It was a treasure trove, huge amounts of cash, weapons,
multiple fake passports and ideas for Shatlah, and official security
passes that linked him directly to top government officials. It
was just, it was undeniable proof right there in the
wreckage that the state, the politicians, and the mafia were
literally in bed together.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Let's talk about some of the figures who really embody this.
Let's start with a Latin Chakichi.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Chakachi is a classic example. His career is built on extortion, gambling,
and assassinations. But what made him so powerful for so
long were his very public, very deep connections to nationalist
political circles.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
And those connections gave him a shield.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
They gave him protection from prosecution, They gave him leverage.
He could run his empire even from inside a prison cell.
He's the model of crime and ideology being used as
inseparable tools of power.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Now, let's contrast him with a more modern figure, so
Dot Peeker, a totally different kind of crime.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Lord Peeker is the social media gangster. He came up
in the traditional way through protection, rackets and fraud, but
his legacy is what he did after he fled Turkey
in twenty twenty one. He started releasing these slickly produced
bombshell videos on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And what was he claiming in these videos?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
He was naming names, He wasn't being vague. He was
accusing top level politicians and their families of being involved
in cocaine trafficking, murder, cover ups, deep corruption, detailed specific accusations.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
That's incredible. A mafia boss turning the secrets of the
state against the state itself.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
It completely flipped the script. Instead of relying on the
state for protection, he used the threat of exposure to
try and tear the whole thing down. It was a
viral digital version of the Suster Luck scandal, showing everyone
just how deep the connections really ran.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
This really shows their adaptability. Let's look at how they've
diversified in the modern era beyond just Heroin.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Their ability to pivot is incredible. Heroin is still a
core business, but they've expanded everywhere.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
What are the big new ventures.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Synthetic drugs are huge now, higher profits, easier to make,
and critically, they've moved into the cocaine trade in a
big way. They're using their logistical networks to move massive
shipments from South America through Turkey and into Europe.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And what about the human cost migrant smuggling.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Given Turkey's location next to Syria, Iran and the EU,
They've ruthlessly capitalized on that. They control key parts of
the human smuggling routes, moving desperate people for huge profits.
It's just another commodity for them.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And they're getting more sophisticated with financial crime massively.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
They're still in construction for money laundering, but now they're
running global online gambling sites. They're involved in cybercrime, data extortion.
The local gambling hall has become a global virtual casino.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
And their biggest asset in all this modern crime is
still the diaspora network in Europe.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
It's their secret weapon. These communities provide the perfect cover.
They offer social installation, language skills, and a huge population
to hide their activities.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Within Which countries are we talking about?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
The sources always highlight Germany with its huge Turkish population,
but also Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden. The operations
there are comprehensive. They run drug distribution protection rackets against
businesses in their own communities and really effective money launderings.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
How does that laundering work?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
They use legitimate cash heavy businesses, supermarket chains, construction companies,
logistics firms. The drug money gets mixed in with the
daily revenue declared as legitimate profit and then it's clean.
The social infrastructure is the camouflage that makes it all possible.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And finally, on their adaptability, they're known as the ultimate networkers.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
It's the final piece of the puzzle. They are the
go to middlemen because they will work with anyone. They
are not ideologically rigid when it comes to making money.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
So who are their partners in crime?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It's a global rolodex. They work with the Italian and Jungata,
the Albanian clans, Russian mobs, Middle Eastern smugglers, even African
human trafficking networks. They're the universal connector in the world
of illicit trade.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Let's spend a moment on the figures who built this empire,
not just names, but chapters in this history. Do Nar
Khalich the original godfather?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Khaluch really defined that first generation of sophisticated bosses. He
dominated Istanbul and Onkura for deca gads. His world was
the classics, arms trafficking, high stakes, gambling, nightlife protection.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
What was his legacy?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
He professionalized it. He showed that to be a true
boss you needed both brutality and deep political connections. He
built an empire so strong that even when he was
in prison, his orders were followed without question. He was
the undisputed godfather of his time.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And then there's Abdullah Schatla, the Deep State assassin.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Shatlun is the ghost in the machine, the main character
in the Deep State story. He wasn't just a gangster
out for profit. He was an ultra nationalist operative using
crime to fund a political war.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
And his death in that car crash immortalized him.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
His death was the physical proof of the shadow government.
The fact that he died alongside a top state official
exposed the cold hard truth the state was hiring its
killers directly from the mafia and the far right. His
name is now just shorthand for that entire dark alliance.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
We've talked about, Shakichi and Pucker showing the evolution of
power from the old school enforcer to the new school
day digital whistleblower.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Absolutely, Shakachi's power came from political allies and raw fear.
Pecker showed that those old relationships were vulnerable. He used
a cell phone to expose secrets that have been kept
for decades. It just proves that while the tools change,
the entanglement with the political class is constant.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
But a key theme throughout this has been that this
world is not unified. It's decentralized, and that means constant
brutal conflict.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
That is the violent reality. Because it's all based on
clans and region and personal honor, the whole system is
inherently unstable. It's not one happy family. It's a constant
war for dominance.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Were they fighting over the.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Usual things, just amplified by clan loyalty. They fight over
territory and estembul. They fight over shares of drug shipments.
They fight when political alliances shift. If one boss loses
his government protection, his rivals move in for the kill,
and of course just personal betrayals and vendettas that can
last for generations.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
And what does that mean for the city?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Istempul's history is just littered with these public gang wars,
high profile assassinations, shootouts in crowded streets. It's a constant,
bloody reshaping of the hierarchy. It ensures that no boss
can ever truly feel safe.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So as we wrap up this deep dive, it's clear
that Turkish mafia is this unique mix centuries of smuggling tradition,
modern global logistics, fused with nationalists politics, built on clan
loyalty and enforced by brutal violence.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
It might not have the Hollywood glamour of other mafias,
but in terms of pure logistical power and strategic importance,
you could argue it's the most significant organized crime structure
in the world today.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
And why are they still so relevant right now?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Because they control the crossroads. As long as illegal things, drugs, weapons,
people need to move between Asia and Europe. The Turkish
mafia will be the essential logistical hub. They control the trickpoint.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
And they seem incredibly resilient.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Their resilience comes from that adaptability and their deep political roots.
Law enforcement puts pression on them, so they pivot from
heroin to cocaine, from a fi yusical casino to a website,
from political protection to public exposure. They adapt faster than
the people trying to stop them. They are deeply entrenched
shadow power, which brings.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Us to our final thought for you to take away
from this, We've established that the line between organized crime
and parts of the state in Turkey is at times
almost invisible, a shadow government.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
So think about what that means when crime and state
power are that intertwined. A political crisis in Istanbul doesn't
just stay in Istanbul. It directly impacts the flow of
drugs and the security on the streets of London, Berlin
or Paris.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
The power of the state is used to help the
black market.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
And the money from the black market in turn props
up parts of the state. The line between the street
and the state house is blurry until something like the
Susserlt crash makes the deadly truth crystal clear.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
The truly complex and chilling reality. Thank you for joining
us on this deep dive. We'll see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.