By Xinhua,
Ankara : Turkey’s drug trafficking report for 2007 revealed that at least 31 tons of opium and 13 tons of heroin were seized in Turkey last year, local newspaper Today’s Zaman reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, Turkey stepped up anti-drug operations in 2007, with some 7,500, 10,000 and 13,600 operations carried out against drug traffickers in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. The amount of the seized opium was 31 tons in 2007, increasing from 13 tons in 2005, while the amount of the seized heroin rose from eight tons in 2005 to 13 tons in 2007, the report showed. Meanwhile, the number of suspects arrested in the operations also increased to 28,000 in 2007 from 15,000 in 2005.The amount of illegal substances seized in Turkey greatly exceeded that seized in 27 European Union (EU) countries plus Iran, said the report, quoting Mustafa Pinarci, chairman of the Turkish Center for Monitoring Drug Use and Drug Addiction (TUBIM), adding that Turkey is in a good position in its battle against drug trafficking.
According to the report, 85 percent of the drugs entering Turkey came from Afghanistan, and most of the trafficked drugs are then transported to Eastern European countries, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Meanwhile, illegal substances such as ecstasy, a psychoactive drug, are transported from Western countries to the East and Middle East.
The data showed hashish is the most frequently used illicit drug in Turkey, adding that ecstasy had become more common in recent years and Turkey had become a transit country in ecstasy trafficking.
Moreover, the report highlighted that drug trafficking remains the number one financial resource for the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) and that the organization cultivates Indian hemp in the mountainous terrain of Turkey.