ISTANBUL (CIHAN) - 615 kilos of opium has been intercepted in a coordinated anti-smuggling operation by the Turkish police.
10 people were detained in the nationwide operation - two people in Mersin, 4 in Izmir and 4 in Istanbul.
Ten suspects were transferred before Istanbul State Security Court on charges of drug smuggling. A spokesman for the police said that the opium packages had been discovered in the secret compartment of a truck. An investigation is underway.
The intercepted opium was brought to Turkey from Afghanistan through Iran. Some part of the opium was to have been sold in Istanbul while the rest was to have been forwarded to Western Europe.
Turkey is a main transition route for drugs and human trafficking. Drugs from Afghanistan and neighboring countries are smuggled into western countries through Turkey.
Istanbul is on the key transit route for Southwestern Asian heroin to Western Europe, and to a lesser extent to the US via air, land, and sea routes.
Early in 2004, in what was the biggest-ever haul of the drug in Europe, Istanbul police seized one thousand and four kilos of heroin in the Büyükçekmece district of Istanbul.