Selim Işık, also known as Selim the Fox, along with 11 other suspects, were taken into police custody on suspicion of heroin trafficking after simultaneous operations carried out in İstanbul, Mersin, Afyon, Aydın, Malatya and Hakkari. Işık is believed to be the head of a network trafficking heroin and illicit drugs from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan to Europe.Police teams seized 71 kilograms of heroin, nine guns, one rifle and large amounts of money in the homes and vehicles they searched. Police launched an investigation after an anonymous tip in July reporting a gang smuggling heroin from Iran to Europe. In the course of several months police discovered that the gang was headed by Işık, who has been at the center of police searches for years. Police discovered the group’s headquarters and carried out an operation on Thursday.
One of the founders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an attorney, a retired major and the father of convicted terrorist Azime Işık, one of the perpetrators of a terrorist attack in 1999 in İstanbul that left 13 dead, are reportedly among the members of the gang. The retired major, who was also a defendant in a separate trial, was previously charged with participating in an illegal formation known as the Yüksekova gang, a group allegedly operating inside the gendarmerie and responsible for countless unsolved murders in three Hakkari districts known as the Yüksekova-Şemdinli-Çukurca triangle.
The gang was allegedly involved in heroin smuggling and transported heroin from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan to Europe, particularly Holland. The revenue from smuggling was allegedly shared between the PKK and the gang members. The retired major reportedly brought heroin across the border by showing his military card. Since he has the right to stay in an officers’ club, the police had difficulty following him, which prolonged the duration of the operation.
Alaattin Çakıcı, arguably the most famous mafia leader in Turkey, mentioned Selim Işık in his testimony to police after he was captured in Belgium, saying Işık smuggled massive quantities of heroin into Europe. Furthermore, Isık’s name was cited in a 1978 report by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and a 1998 report by the Bulgarian police.
In a telephone conversation leaked in 1995 between Mahmut Yıldırım and Işık, Yıldırım, better known by the codename Yeşil, threatened Işık and told him to give him a share of the money he obtained from smuggling heroin to Europe. In the voice recording Yeşil says: “Do not eat it alone. If you do, you will have to vomit it.”
