Montenegrin mob boss Zeljko Bojanic was detained over the weekend by Turkish police at his villa in İstanbul’s Sarıyer district, according to local media reports.
Implicated in drug trafficking, Bojanic was detained on suspicion of killing Serbian national Risto Mijanovic, who went missing in 2020, Turkish media reports said on Sunday, adding that police started excavating Bojanic’s garden believing that Mijonovik’s body may have been buried there.
The development comes a week after Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), in particular Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, of involvement in facilitating money laundering and drug trafficking in the country.
The CHP leader claimed in a seven-minute video released on Twitter that the government was using the “black money” that was coming into Turkey from drug trafficking to close the country’s current account deficit.
“If you turn a blind eye to the money of drug lords [entering the country], their owners will also come to Turkey. As a result … drug gangs from all over the world came to İstanbul and settled down. They turned İstanbul into a conflict zone of the world’s criminal organizations, international mafia and drug lords,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.
Following the detention of Bojanic, the CHP leader posted a series of tweets, reminding of his earlier remarks that black money brings its owners to the country, too, and adding that what people are now witnessing was “just a grain of sand in the sea.”
Kılıçdaroğlu also addressed the Serbian drug cartels, saying, “Leave our cities. We will destroy you. Take your dirty money and go. We do not have a single child to sacrifice to you.” The CHP leader also posted the same tweet in Serbian.
Kartellere sesleniyorum; şehirlerimizi terk edin. Sizi yok edeceğiz. Kirli paranızı alın gidin. Size kurban vereceğimiz tek bir evladımız yoktur.
— Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (@kilicdarogluk) November 6, 2022
In a public statement on Monday, Minister Soylu claimed Turkish law enforcement had been carrying out the largest drug operation in history and detaining an average of 5,000 drug dealers or producers a week.
Commenting on Soylu’s statement, Tuncay Özkan, an advisor to Kılıçdaroğlu, said, addressing AKP officials, “Kılıçdaroğlu said it [and] Soylu confessed to it. The country has become a drug hub. What are you waiting for to resign?”
Soylu, haftada ortalama 5 bin uyuşturucu satıcısını gözaltına alıyor demiş. Kılıçdaroğlu, söylemişti, Soylu itiraf etmiş oldu; ülke uyuşturucu merkezi haline gelmiş! İstifa etmek için ne bekliyorsunuz?
— Tuncay ÖZKAN (@ATuncayOzkan) November 7, 2022
Mob boss Sedat Peker had also talked about the alleged involvement of the AKP in international drug trafficking in a video in 2021. Peker, who lives in exile in UAE and makes scandalous revelations about the dirty relations between the Turkish government and mafia and crime groups, claimed that Erkan Yıldırım, son of former vice president Binali Yıldırım, who is currently deputy chairman of the AKP, was part of a major drug trafficking ring involving Venezuela and Turkey.
Peker, the head of one of Turkey’s most powerful mafia groups who was once a staunch supporter of President Erdoğan, is the subject of an outstanding warrant in Turkey and can’t continue his revelations on social media these days due to restrictions imposed by the UAE on him.
