Arrests Made In Raid Against Turkish Criminal Organisation

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) A total of 19 suspects were arrested on Wednesday in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Turkey in a cross-border raid against a Turkish criminal organisation. According to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, property searches were carried out in cantons Aargau and Zurich in connection with the raid.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) carried out the searches as part of a request for mutual legal assistance from Milan with the support of the federal Police (Fedpol) and cantonal police in Aargau and Zurich.

According to Italian news agencies, the detainees are accused of being members of a criminal organisation that pursues terrorist aims, among other things. They are also accused of illegal possession of weapons and explosives, international drug trafficking, murder, and promoting illegal immigration.

According to the Adnkronos agency, the details were published in the arrest warrant issued by the Milan public prosecutor's office. The boss of the organisation is among those arrested. Apparently, the Italian police had hidden a bug in his electronic bracelet. He was already under house arrest.

In the intercepted conversations, he alledgedly admitted to having a large arsenal of weapons including Kalashnikovs and hand grenades. In a conversation about arms trafficking, he reportedly explained that his organisation also held heavy weapons in Switzerland.

He also boasted that his men managed“the entire German market” and that he could also sell in Switzerland. He even had his own weapons manufacturer.

According to the Milan public prosecutor's office, the wiretap logs not only prove existence of the criminal organisation's large arsenal of weapons in Italy, Europe, and Turkey, but also that they included weapons of war.

These were imported to Italy and other European countries and sold to other organisations. The weapons were used by the group for acts of intimidation and murder, but also for attacks, and to protect the interests of the leader and the group.

Adapted from German by DeepL/dkk/ac

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here , and if you have feedback on this news story please write to ... .

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

I consent to the use of my data for the SWI swissinfo newsletter.

This content was published on May 22, 2024 The Federal Council approved a contribution of CHF49.5 million ($54.1 million) for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

This content was published on May 22, 2024 The Federal Council has authorised deployment of army personnel for the Ukraine peace conference on the Bürgenstock in June.

This content was published on May 22, 2024 The business association, Swissmem, reports that there are increasing signs that the bottom of the downturn will be reached this year.

This content was published on May 22, 2024 The Senate Legal Affairs Committee has declared that The European Court of Human Rights overreached its authority.

This content was published on May 22, 2024 Late Tuesday night, five workers suffered eye and respiratory irritation after exposure to a chemical leak.

This content was published on May 22, 2024 Schwab, 86, will retire from his position as Executive Chairman, and take over as Chairman of the WEF Foundation Board.

This content was published on May 21, 2024 The proportion of threatened bird species is higher in Switzerland than many other countries.

This content was published on May 21, 2024 Swiss scientists use normally discarded parts of the cocoa fruit, to 'improve' chocolate.

This content was published on May 21, 2024 The Federal Administrative Court rejected arguments that Bimbo stands for the word Toddler.

This content was published on May 21, 2024 Switzerland Tourism wants overcrowding measures, such as entrance fees, to be balanced.

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at ... .

MENAFN22052024000210011054ID1108246091