Turkish police detained 117 people on Friday in a nationwide operation targeting an İstanbul-based youth gang that prosecutors say recruited minors for assaults, issuing threats and armed robberies.
The raids were carried out in 21 provinces on orders from the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in İstanbul.
Authorities said teams raided locations in İstanbul and in other provinces including Ankara, İzmir, Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa and Mardin.
Prosecutors said the group, which goes by the name “Casperlar,” sheltered underage members and sent them on crimes using stolen cars or motorcycles.
The prosecutor’s office said those crimes included shootings at workplaces, assaults, armed robbery and the issuance of threats.
Prosecutors also said the group used social media to recruit members by promoting a life of luxury and fast money.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the operation aimed to prevent people from being harmed by crimes the group could commit.
The operation came a week after prosecutors prepared a lengthy indictment against the same network.
That indictment names 223 defendants, including 145 who were already in pretrial detention.
The case is part of a wider crackdown in Turkey on what officials and Turkish media often describe as “new generation” armed criminal groups, many of them made up of teenagers and young adults.
In recent years there has been an increase in street groups that use social media for recruitment and publicity and sometimes adopt cartoon-based nicknames to build an identity.
The latest indictment also described violence tied to competition between youth gangs.
It alleged that leaders in the Casperlar network arranged the killing of a 16-year-old boy they claimed was linked to a rival group known as “Daltonlar,” another youth gang.
In a separate incident in İstanbul’s Bahçelievler district, the indictment said a 16-year-old boy was murdered after meeting a suspected gang figure through an online gaming site.