The Underworld Podcast - The Bloody Turkish Mafia War Raging Across the World

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

With their leader sentenced to life in a Dutch prison, the most powerful heroin trafficking organzation in Europe, the Turkish-Kurdish Baybasin clan, wasn't about to call it quits. Younger brother Abdullah Baybasin set out to control the streets of North London with his feared crew of Hackney Bombers. But another powerful gang, the Tottenham Turks, and the met police investigators, had other ideas. Two decades later, control of Europe's heroin market is once again facing instability, as the Taliban banning opium production in Afghanistan has set the entire market in flux. Hitman are roaming Europe, striking in Moldova, Barcelona, London and elsewhere. But it's not just massive amounts of heroin moving through Turkey anymore, as many of the gangs are connecting with cartels in Latin America and making the switch to cocaine. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to RocketMoney.com/UNDERWORLD. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/underworld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavat Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. Ambition comes in all shapes and size.

At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. November 2002 in North London. The fight starts in the Doslar Social Club in an area called Greenlands, the center of the city's Turkish and Kurdish expat community. It's a thoroughfare that's full of green grocers, but also plenty of cafes and hookah spots that seem to do very little business. yet always make rent and are open 24 hours a day. It's the middle of the afternoon, but the fight soon turns into a vicious brawl

with dozens of men using all manners of weapons, knives, bats, even guns. It's absolute chaos. When the dust settles, 20 men are injured, four with gunshot wounds, and a 43-year-old cleaner and father of two, by all accounts an innocent bystander, but he's dead from a stabbing.

The death is not a man. an outlier. Law enforcement later say that there has been up to 25 murders in recent years, tit for attack killings, all related to the two groups involved in the massive fight. See, Green Lanes, it's also the home base of the UK's heroin trade, which in 2002 is controlled by Turkish and Kurdish gangs in the area. One of those gangs, the Hackney bombers, are the foot soldiers of a criminal organization that was allegedly behind 90% of all the heroin flowing into the UK. That starts the change, though, in 1998,

when the boss is arrested and thrown into a Dutch prison. That boss and the man who police say orchestrated the brawl from his cell is the man who controls that heroin trade. He's known as the heroin emperor, and he's a godfather-like figure in the community. Even though he's currently sitting in that Dutch prison, for a life sentence, no less, no one is willing to say his name out loud.

A bystander tells a newspaper reporter that not a single person is going to speak to the police about what happens. People are too scared. Quote, when they come to kill you, then it's all over. There is nothing you can do. That man is Hussein Babyschen, patriarch of the feared Babyssin clan of Kurds from the southeast of Turkey. His crew runs heroin in Britain and Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain. And they've been power players since the night. 1970s, bringing in and refining opium from Afghanistan that gets smuggled through Iran.

Two of his brothers have also been arrested, and Interpol's got files on a dozen other relatives. Hussein was found guilty in 2001, hence the life in prison. Weirdly, he was pretty open about trafficking huge amounts of heroin, though he claims he was doing it for the Turkish state. He's still calling the shots while in prison, but it's his younger brother Abdullah, confined to a wheelchair after a shooting in 1986 that's now controlling things on the street. And he might actually be more violent than his older brother. Him and his crew of young violent bombers not only control the heroin market, but they also extort everyone in the area, ruling things with an iron fist.

Still, the drug game is the drug game. And any sign of weakness, like having your leader locked up in prison, is an opening for someone else to move in. That someone, in this case, is another. other gang in the area, the Tottenham Turks, though most sources say they too are mostly Kurds. But this isn't just some turf or scrap between rival drug dealing crews. No, there's way more at play here. Only recently, Hussein and Abdullah decided to part ways with the militant Kurdish organization known as the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, that they had been donating

funds to and also paying a protection tax. The PKK has a serious network in Europe, and they've also been accused of drug trafficking. The Tottingham Turks, despite their name, are also tied in with the PKK, and they aren't happy about that move from the Babyschen clan. So starts a gang war in a neighborhood in London that's now, even in 2024, seeing murders and violence all over the world. This is the Underworld podcast. Welcome back, friends, to the podcast, the audio experience that takes you on a journey. journey through the global criminal underworld of past, present and future, hosted by two journalists, myself, Danny Gold, and Englishman, Sean Williams. We trade off every week guiding you on that

journey. As always, we have bonus episodes and more on Patreon.com slash internetworld podcast, as well as you can sign up on Spotify or on iTunes, underworldpod.com for our merch, some great t-shirts, and you can email us at the underworldpodcast at gmail.com for tips, story ideas, confessions, advice, on which drugs you can do when on antibiotics. Spoiler alert, all of them. And am I leaving anything out, Sean? No, that was pretty good. I mean, this is the gentle ribbing section of the show traditionally,

but there's only positive vibes over here. I just got commissioned to go to Croatia for a story. So if anybody is in Zagreb or nearby, let me know where the good food is and also where the gangsters are so I can report back from the pod at some point. Let me know where the gangsters are. I guess I'm doing the same thing.

Oh, there's the ribbing. With Japan, you know. I'm like, let's hang out with the... Anyway, as always, please support our sponsors. We need them. We are in this for the money, not for the love.

No, no love. But vibes. Vibes are on spectral plane. Vives are forever. We love vibes. Vives, all around. You know, now, big week in America, there was an election,

and we aren't going to get into it. That's not what we do. We are here to talk about heroin and people who sell that heroin and or get gunned down outside Siwaq, in European cities because of that heroin. That's what we're here for.

That's what we bring to you. Today, we are going to be diving into this multi-decade war playing out from the streets of North London to Istanbul, to Moldova, Barcelona, all over control of the heroin market in Europe. And more now, actually, not just heroin, gnarly stuff. It's involving variously described Turkish and or Kurdish mafias. But we need to pick back up in the late 90s where you. your friend and mine, Hussein Babi Shin, the heroin emperor, Europe's Pablo Escobar,

has just been stung by Operation Black Tulip. We go into this quite deeply in last week's episode if you haven't heard it. Yeah, and it goes without saying, like, if you haven't listened, go back, get up to speed. I'm also slightly nervous you mentioned Moldova as well. I thought it was in our contract now that we wouldn't mention that place. I thought you paid off all your debts to those guys. But maybe not. You never paid off.

They never all go. No. So Hussein is imprisoned in Holland later to be convicted and sentenced to life. This is 1998. Of course, he goes off on his interview and quote, giving spree where he claims that all of his heroin trafficking was done with the blessing and support of the Turkish government. Again, I'm not going to go into all that because it's a mess. All you got to know is some evidence points to yes, some to know, a little bit from column A, a little bit from column B. But either way, he moved billions of dollars of heroin into Europe with his crew. And with, With him imprisoned, it's left his younger brother and essentially his right-hand man, Abdullah, nicknamed Apo, to run things on the outside. Abdullah is confined to a wheelchair ever since being shot in a bar in Holland in the mid-80s, but he's been right by his brother's side on his rise to the top and is known to actually be more violent than his older brother. He's also been the man running things in North London while his brother was off in Holland

prior to his arrest. And Abdullah, like his brother, was rumored to have been an informant for the UK Customs Office. He actually gets picked up on a gun charge in 1998, around the same time his brother is arrested in Holland, but he's not held for long. That's also when he makes his asylum claim. And 1998 is also when we get the first estimate of the Babishin family's fortune, which puts it at about 9 billion pounds. Do I trust the math on that? I don't know. Probably not.

But they're definitely making billions. It's also when we start hearing that the Babishin's control 90% of the heroin coming into the UK. with Abdullah overseeing it all from the North London neighborhood of Greenlands. Oh, love that. I used to live on Summer Hill Road in Seven Sisters, which is like a short walk from Green Lanes. And true story, me and my palpete, who you met last week, Danny, didn't you? We lived next door. Great guy, great guy.

We lived next door to this lockup that was very, very busy, including one big flatbed that came in one day that was just full of watermelons, and everyone seemed very interested in the watermelons. And then one night we'd woken up middle of the night, like blues and two screaming cops. There's guys sprinting away from the lockup and there's one that we could see from our window that was crouched under a desk.

It was awesome. And the cops are just grabbing the watermelons. I mean, look, I know that we're nutritionally deficient in Britain but I'm going to guess those melons weren't for the local smoothie place. So yeah, North London, back then, what, 2008, 2010, something like that, that was a lot of fun. Yeah, it sounds like it. So that's when the baby shames their control over the turrets.

and or Kurdish organized crime is so powerful that around that time, they basically become the like conflict resolution types, judges over other criminal gangs disagreements. Like other gangs in conflict would bring their issues to them and then they pass judgment. They also have so much control over the Turkish and Kurdish immigrant communities in London, of which a BBC article in 2010 said it was around 200,000 Kurds and 50,000 Turks, but I kind of feel like part of me thinks that's backwards. Anyway, they start extorting. all the business owners in the area. It's classic immigrant group racketeering. We've talked

about this a whole bunch in many, many episodes. It's truly not to single out Kurds or Turks, but this is generally how it works with every wave of immigration, no matter what country or ethnicity, everything from the obvious Italians and Jews in the first half of the 20th century in America, later Russian Jews in the 90s, Hong Kong Chinese and Vietnamese in the 70s and 80s, Albanians in the 90s, Jamaicans, everything. It's just par for the course that no 99% of people will be law-abiding, but in organized crime group or gang is going to come into the picture, and the first people they target always, always are their own.

And they extort them, they charge protection money, and of course there's always loan sharking, which even now, with payday loans on every corner or even on phone apps, it's actually still huge in immigrant communities because people like that just don't want to be on paper. Yeah, you see stories on Venezuela now. It's like a similar kind of narrative. And if you go to, if anyone is in London, they're going to go to watch an Arsenal game.

You actually, you will see this thing play out right there outside the stadium because there's rows and rows of Somali loan places like that. And I think that's a really into the community in North East London. And it's really rife there, which is quite interesting as well. One source cites the amount each business have to pay Hussein or Abdullah, I guess at this point in his gang at 10,000 pounds a year. But for bigger businesses, they say it can get up to 100,000. And this includes shopkeepers, cafe owners, just all sort of small business owners. Abdullah can follow through on the threats he delivers to those business owners if they don't pay. Because he's got a crew around him, a crew he builds up called the Hackney Bomba Sala, I think is the Turkisher.

Bomba Shalar, but means hackney bombers. He previously had worked with the gang called the Kurdish Bulldogs, but he creates the bombers himself. I saw some reports that had the average age of a member as being between 14 and 18, but I think that's, in exaggeration. It's a crew of mostly Kurdish and some Turkish young men that he works with in North London to control the drug trade there.

My assumption is that it's kind of like we've talked about the Chinatang Wars in New York in the 70s, right? You had these major international organizations, triad groups who operated all over the world, but in New York City's Chinatown, they had sort of street gang affiliates fighting their battles sometimes

over much simpler stuff than global, multi-million dollar heroin routes. Whatever the case, the bombers instill fear all over North London and make sure Abdullah stays in control. Yeah, the bombers and the bulldogs, these guys are poster children for integration. That protection money,

that receteering is going to come into play with that story in the cold open, that brawl. First, though, in 2001, Hussein gets convicted of a whole mess of crimes and a half dozen or so of Abdullah's guys, they get knocked for heroin. The London police are on to him, but they don't have enough to go after him just yet.

He's very careful. Meanwhile, things seem to be heating up on the street between Abdullah's Hackney crew and another crew called the Tottingham Turks. They're also a mostly Kurdish gang, said to be hardcore PKK supporters. They're rising up a bit, challenging the established order of things now that Hussein is locked up and there's blood in the water. Things start getting tense. A Times-Uk story in 2016 said that the Tottingham Turks had gotten started bringing in heroin in the 90s from asylum seekers and then laundering that money, the money means. made from it through local businesses, the cafes and grocers and all that in Green Lanes. So the Tottenham Turks, who are again, mostly Kurds, are starting to get more powerful.

Also around that time, it's when Abdullah and Hussein make the decision to stop funding the PKK, or not funding, but like donating funds to PKK. The PKK being the Kurdistan Workers Party, the militant Kurdish group fighting a war against Turkey in the country Southeast, and also the group that supposedly helped Hussein rise to the top of the heroin market by helping him smuggle heroin from Afghanistan into Iran and then Turkey. But also, lest we forget, the PKK's mortal enemy, the Turkish government also helped him smuggle heroin from Turkey into Europe. Look, it's a headache, man. It is. Who knows? Who knows? Many of the reports from around this time cite that Tottenham Turks as being either some sort of

PKK affiliate or just really fervent PKK supporters. So this cutting off the money is what some people say trigger the brawl. Now, Mark Galiotti, who wrote a chapter title Turkish organized crime from tradition to business in the book, traditional organized crime in the modern world. Oh yeah. Yeah, my doppel gala galiotti. Yeah, I remember this. Right. He also wrote a book called Vori about the Russian mob. Yeah, that's a great book. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at USAA dot com slash bundle restrictions apply for the moments that matter choose cure ad naturals infused with aloe vera and

vitamin e cured natural's bandages protect your unexpected scrapes cuts and burns while also moisturizing your skin find deeper relief with natural ingredients you can trust to start the healing when life surprises call for the best choose cured a deeper level of care shop the full collection on amazon or visit curad dot com to learn more I wrote a little song to remind you, choice hotels, get you more of the experiences you value. The can be a hotel's got it all. A rooftop bar, have a ball. Bring a date, your squad, or even your mom.

Book direct at choiceotails.com. He says, quote, in this instance, the bombers were facing off against partisans of the Kurdish separatist movement, the PKK, who, according to which account one accepts, were either were seeking to prevent Babishin's gang from extorting local Kurdish businesses or else were feuding over who got to run the local protection racket. So the PKKAK was also known to, you know, charge protection money to local businessmen for fundraising. And Galiat Adi basically says that they, as the Tottenham Turks, were either fighting off the hackney bombers because they wanted control of the protection rackets or they wanted to defend their people against extortion.

While most news reports put it as a battle over control of the heroin trade. It's actually very hard to make sense of this stuff. Like those are wildly different reasons. But no matter what the motivation is, it leads to that bloody brawl in the cold open that sees dozens fighting, 20 wounded, and one innocent bystander killed. Here is how the sun describes the neighborhood in 2002.

Quote, much of the criminal activity is centered around certain Turkish cafes, which are notorious for not selling anything. These bar foreigners from entering, and yet somehow managed to make enough money to pay the rent. These cafes are centers for a legal gamble, The back rooms are also used for planning and delivery of drug shipments.

Once the drugs are brought in through Dover, the loads are split and usually sent to London and Liverpool, another Turkish stronghold. With the properties occupied on 24-hour basis and their prominent high street locations, making normal surveillance almost impossible, successful police raids on the cafes are few and far between. Yeah, I could be getting this wrong. And anyone in London can tell me on the email, but I think I'm pretty certain a lot of these places. places were the football supporters clubs. There was like a carve-out so you could deny people entry if you weren't like a member of the Bishikhtas or like the Fenerbachi.

I think there were clubs for both of those Turkish teams, I think one on the Kingsland Road, which is one of the main roads going for East London. There was a Bishikas place and a Galatasarai one around the corner from ours. And it's just like old boys drinking sugary tea and smoking mulver reds in the front. I'm guessing quite a lot going on.

out back. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. You know, there's other headlines popping up in British media about medieval turf wars, keeping tabs on the Turkish connection, heroin emperor brings terror to UK streets. And, you know, once those headlines start coming out, you know it's only a matter of time. In April of 2003, the calculations change.

That big brawl and the subsequent headlines, that leads to the police planning a major crackdown. But Abdullah, like we said, he's careful. He makes sure to never be in the same room as the heroin. But what happens is the police somehow get into his office and rig up the back room in his headquarters with a tiny microphone in camera. They dub it Operation Marmot, which I don't know, kind of a lame name,

and what they see shocks them. Plenty of drug deals being done and guns handed out, sure, but also drug dealers and pimps coming through to pay their respects to the boss man Abdullah, who stops by around three times a week. Says one police inspector, quote, people were in awe of him. It was like watching a scene from the godfather.

People would come into the room and kiss his hand. He used to speak in a whisper in Turkish and Kurdish, so only the people close to him could hear. That's crazy stuff. It's amazing. And the rare win for the Met Police are well done to them. Well, a little soon on that one, as we'll say. You know, they also had human traffickers stop by and pay their tax. It was one care of person.

Shopkeepers and businessmen who refuse to pay their taxes are brought in and beat in. There's also plans discussed of which businesses they need to firebomb, the ones that weren't paying. And for eight months in 2003, the police have a front row seat to watch the comings and goings of one of the most powerful gangs in England as Abdullah holds court. Then, in December of that year, 2003, they make their move. There's a series of raids going after Abdullah and the bombers, confiscating everything from guns to machetes to counterfeit money. And the police even claim they find a torture room. Abdullah goes on trial and in 2006 he pleads guilty to selling 5.5 pounds of heroin, which is a paltry amount for him, but I guess the best they could do.

And he also pleads guilty to extortion. 16 other gang members are convicted. He gets sentenced to 22 years. Somehow though, because of some issues with the judge, he gets a retrial in 2010 and is acquitted, which I don't even know, like all those recordings, like definitely not a win for the Met police. Like this is, it's perfect. He actually wins a lawsuit against the British prison services for not doing enough for him to help with his wheelchair. For 20,000 pounds, they've got to pay him.

He says he got no help from staff for bathing or going to the bathroom and instead had to rely on younger prisoners to help him with it. Hey, I mean, when a heroin emperor asks you to help him do a poo, you're probably going to have to help that man do a poo. He's more like the heroin conciviliere, but yes, fair. Well, yeah, that's even more demeaning. Yeah, fair play. he's officially released in 2011 and sent back to Turkey where he's promptly arrested for organizing a cocaine shipment from Bolivia and he sentenced to 40 years

but yeah I mean them then moving into cocaine actually threw me for a loop more on that in a bit of course by 2017 the Supreme Court in Turkey overturns his conviction and he's free and I kind of like I wonder how that happens it's also weird that his brother who he worked alongside is public enemy number one and yet he's just going free he also applied for asylum because he was supposed to be in danger in Turkey.

I mean, the whole thing, the whole thing is weird man. There's a lot of, a lot of these guys, a lot going on there. But let's rewind back. After the 2002-2003 raids on the bombers, things actually calmed down a bit, especially with Abdullah being sentenced in 2006.

But like with anywhere else in organized crime, power vacuums don't last long. The bombers and the Babishin family had been so dominant, but their power had been waning. And with the Babishins, both of them locked up, though, they don't disappear, but it's up to the younger guys, the younger generation to hold on to their power. The Tottingham Turks are obviously still around, and things start to kick off in 2008, 2009.

Here's the sun again. Quote, in 2009, the Mets then commander for North London, Steve Kavanaugh, said the Babishin Network had given way to something much more chaotic, leading to levels of violence that are shocking. See, in 2009, the leader of the bombers is attacked and slapped in a pool hall by members of the Tottingham Turks. who are being led by the Aaron brothers. We're going to hear more from them in a bit. And this kicks off a street war with tit for attack killings in North London and elsewhere. We get hitmen being hired, innocent bystander shot and gun down, just chaos.

The younger brother of the bomber's leader is killed in his custom-built Audi 8 limo right near a tube station. Yeah, I kind of remember this. It was right when I was living there. I mean, Tottenham back then was a real powder keg for like tons and tons of reasons. I guess, I don't know if you're going to mention it. not further down, but it was no shock at all that the London riots started in Tottenham. I think that was 2011. It was really, it was pretty nuts, actually, genuinely quite bad.

Yeah, I mean, we don't, I don't really get into it. I don't know how relevant it was, just these two gangs. The cops were kind of on edge because there was a lot of gang violence going on. And then I think they shot that guy, Mark Duggan, because they believed he was involved in gangs as well. And he turned out, well, it's a bit of a question whether he was or not. But yeah, that kind of ignited the whole thing. Yeah, I mean, I can see why they would be tense with all this going on. Yeah.

By 2010, there's a BBC article titled, Could Turkish and Kurdish gangs become the new mafia? And the article talks about the violence of the last two years, the use of submachine guns. They also talk about how the crimes are so hard to solve since no one talks. And also, there aren't enough Turkish and Kurdish-speaking cops on the force, which again, similar story to stuff we've talked about before,

especially in New York or America. Chinatown gangs, Russian-Mexam. mob in New York in the 80s, Albanian stuff, on and on, the same pattern as always. In 2012, one of the Aaron brothers, those are the leaders of the Tottenham Turks, is gunned down in Turkey, but he survives. And this war is starting to go global. By 2015, there have been 10 murders in the feud, and that's a lot for England. I mean, it's not, you know, it's not St. Louis. You know how hard it is to get guns there?

Yeah, it's hard enough that when, even when you watch like a tough guy, British gangster show, it's a big deal when someone buys a handgun with, is, oh wait, we're not, we're not doing politics. That is a neutral fact. I mean, my favorite thing is when there's like Americans making fun of some Turkish, like, a rapper, when they, like, show like a revolver that looks like it's from like 1915. And they're like, oh, he's going to pull this out, something along those lines, which I always, you know, it's good for, good for a laugh. There's also, I say that as there was just a, like a shootout on my block, literally on Sunday afternoon. Oh my God.

Yeah. That's nice. But I, yeah. I posted that, you saw the video, right? I sent you the video. Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, did anyone get hurt?

Was there anyone get hit? One guy got hit in the hands. But, no, the thing about a lot of gang members is they can't shoot for shit. Like, you saw the video. The guy's running back and shooting. Also, be friends with your super. Then he'll give you the security footage when stuff like that happens. And you can attempt to sell it to the New York papers.

And if they don't want it, then post you. on your social media for your podcasts. Just a little lesson. Yeah, we're full of those here. So there's also a big 2015 Met Police report that comes out and says the Tonnikam Turks are doing the protection money extortion thing to raise money for the PKK targeting Kurdish businesses. Also in 2015, one of those leaders of the Tonningham Turks is that Aaron gets caught with a machine gun and a pistol on the way to a planned hit. He ends up convicted and sentenced the 21 years and he actually tries to to escape from prison with the help of some of his gangmates when he's being transferred in a

prison event. Just like Modi. Yeah, is that, that's Top Boy, right? I mean, I've never even seen it. Is it a huge recommend from you? He's got his own offshoot show now, it seems, on Netflix. Modi does? I mean, they did new season. No, Top Boy's great. It's a little funny, but it's, because, you know, they're British, but it's a great show. I mean, it's really, it's like the British Wire. It's very well done, especially the first two seasons when I think it was a little less like before Netflix got involved you know yeah I mean I'm gonna look forward to people

correcting your Tottenham as well that's gonna be quite good on the emails this week it's it's uh you me not seeing you not having seen top boys worse than me not having seen the French connection or they're they're both along the same okay the same sort of swap while you're in Japan yeah yeah I actually think there was

there was one of those game members was killed in that I think it was a game member but I don't want to speculate it might have been just someone nearby in that prison break or attempted prison break. And that ended up being a big deal. But I think the police were cleared. So that's a, I mean, it just sounds, sounds quite crazy. Yeah.

Is that Aaron get sent back to Turkey in 2019 to finish out his sentence? And surprise, somehow abscons and ends up in Moldova in 2022, where an international manhunt sees him caught, but somehow released again. And that's not the last we're going to hear from him. Meanwhile, these gangs are doing some brutal. murder still in London. In 2021 or 2022, there's this story of a Turkish DJ and radio station owner who seems like a bit of a minor celebrity who while on his way out to dinner with his girlfriend in Mayfair, which is a fancy part of London. Yeah, very. He's kidnapped along with her and then

taken to a closed wine bar where he's tortured for days while his girlfriend has kept locked up in the bathroom the whole time hearing everything. They use baseball bats, boiling water. It is a brutal story. Jesus. The gang, it's actually the Tottenham Turks and some hired muscle. they'd placed the tracker on his car beforehand to well track him their speculation and might have been over money or drugs but the dj confided to a friend that when he was on a recent trip to turkey he said the wrong thing to the wrong people oh okay fair enough which is a quote which is yeah but that's what it's what it is so the war between the tonyingham turks and the hackney bombers it's still going on but but not like it had been but then in 2022 something big happens and it shifts the landscape the Taliban are back in power and they ban the production of opium. Now, we go into detail about Afghanistan and heroin. I think we did a two episode series, maybe a year or two, maybe two years ago, maybe a year ago. Maybe two, yeah. Two long episodes. But yeah, that's where a lot of it comes from, especially the stuff ending up in Europe. We've also done, I think, like two or three bonuses on

the subject as well, if you're one of those morally correct people who subscribes to the Patreon, just search Taliban as a trove of cool stuff. And I can't, I can't stress this enough, like it and you are cool for listening to that. Yeah, we... One, two, a one, two, three, four. Give me a break. Give me a break. Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat me a break.

Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar. Catch off a Krispy Day. Give me a break. Have a kick cat. Security program on spreadsheets, new regulations piling up, and audit dread. It's time for Vanta. Vanta automate security and compliance. brings evidence into one place and cuts audit prep by 82%.

Less manual work, clear visibility, faster deals. Zero chaos. Call it compliance or call it compliance. Get it? Join the 15,000 companies using Vanta to prove trust. Go to VANTA.com slash com. We like you. In the U.S., I actually, the majority of heroin comes from Mexico now,

but the banning is going to have a major effect on the European market. and the lives of Turkish heroin traffickers and dealers because there's now a drought. Prices for a kilo double from pre-pidemic times to 2024. I think it's like 12,000 pounds a key to 25,000 pounds a key. And that much of a change in the market, not to mention you've got Albanian gangs have been muscling in for years. When all those ingredients get added in, you're going to get violence and wars. Which brings us to this year 2024. And a lot of this is from a great article in the OCCRP.

That's the organized crime and corruption reporting project. They do amazing work. It's a nice spring Saturday in Barth, Thalona. How's that for pronunciation? You're nerds. Four men are having lunch at an upscale restaurant, outdoors. You know how they do. One of them gets up, goes to take a phone call and walks away.

He's approached by a hitman who dumps four bullets in his head. Done. The guy's name is Tekken Kartal or Tekken the Eagle. He's a big player in a Turkish gang, and he's also big on social media. Which, I mean, come on guy. What do I always say, Sean? If you're involved in a worldwide Turkish gang war over heroin routes, just don't post. Just don't, you don't need to, you don't need to post.

Now, those three men he was eating with, one of them just happens to be Abdullah Babeshin. The two had also eaten dinner together the night before, and there were also photos of them together in 2018 and 2019. Abdullah posts a TikTok video claiming innocence in the days after the shooting, but who knows, you know? They seem friendly, could be a power move. He's back in the game. He's not back in the game. Who knows? Then, a few weeks later, May, London, Hackney, three guys sitting outside of Curtis Restaurant, a motorcycle stops. One man fires a bunch of shots at them. They're all injured, but also hit is a nine-year-old girl who is critically wounded. According to the OCCRPRPRP, the target was a fourth man who had just gotten up. That man is a member of the Hackney Bombers, and the attempted hit is orchestrated by the Tottingham Turks. Weirdly, the OCCRP, quotes a professor who says that Tottingham gang are mostly Turks, not Curtis, which if you remember 20 years ago, they were basically said to be PKK affiliates or major PKK supporters. So, I mean, again, weird one.

Maybe they've changed. Maybe the makeup of the gang has changed. Maybe people don't know what they're talking about. Maybe the initial info 20 years ago was wrong. There's just so much back and forth like that with this story. It's quite hard to really suss out. Anyway, the man who ordered that shooting in attempt to take out some rivals, it's said to be none other than is at Aaron. And wouldn't you know it, our next stop on this European tour of warring Turkish mafia groups is back in Moldova.

A proud, strong nation. It's later that summer. The leader of the Tottenkamp Turks, is it Aaron, who escaped prison in Turkey, got rearrested in Moldova, but is somehow free, is outside a crowded cafe when a guy in a motorcycle helmet rolls up and shoot. him seven times killing him. The killer apparently leaves the country that same day, just a real smooth hit. Erin is said to have been the one who ordered the shooting in London where the little girl was hit just a few weeks earlier. So an interesting bit again, which is a side note and I apologize for digressing, is that

is that Aaron was allegedly a hitman in the UK operating for the Turkish government in the 90s. The Times of London did this big investigative story in 2016 that claimed that some alleged drug hits in the UK between these Turkish and Kurdish gangs were actually state sponsored. That would be Turkish state sponsored, hits on dissidents that were made to look like

drug gang war hits, which is wild. Here's a quote from the Times. An investigation by the Times mapping the commercial interests of one of two Turkish mafia groups dominating London's heroin trade led to claims that Britain's NATO ally had commissioned extraditional killings in London.

The drug trade was used to match the violence. As part of the deal, the streets of the capital were flooded with heroin. That is mad. Isn't this, I mean, that checks out, right? Because isn't this when Erdogan crushed that attempted coup? And then anti-Eurdoin protesters were getting beaten up outside the White House? I think this is all the same era, right?

Well, the report comes out in 2016, but it's talking about stuff in the 90s. Oh, damn. All right. Yeah, in that case, wow. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's crazy stuff. There's a guy named Noretting Govyn.

or Noreetian Gouvin, who was the president of a Turkish soccer team. He was also an international heroin smuggler who was caught in Turkey and then persuaded by the state to carry out a hit in London in 1994 of a Kurdish trade unionist and make it look like a gangland hit. Now, Aaron apparently worked with the guy who did that hit and at least one more, also in the 90s, as part of the crazy Turkish deep state military and police involvement with heroin traffickers. because, yeah, I mean, we got into it a lot in the last episode, so I'm not going to rehash because it's also very confusing. Back to 2024, all of these killings that we just went over are related investigators, say, to a new war brewing over control of the heroin trade. And I mean, yeah, I didn't go to investigator school,

but it seems pretty obvious and pretty on point. But whereas the previous Tonningham Turks v. Hackney-Bomers war from 20 years ago, and even the one that seems like it kicked off in 2009, they seem like they're a bit more localized and the gangs maybe were a bit more small time at that point, maybe more about retail or in-country distribution. This seems like it's about major global trafficking. A Spanish police officer told the Guardian back in August

that Turkish gangs are still the masters of heroin in Europe and the clans and are fighting over the remnants of the market. There was actually a big arrest of 17 Turkish nationals in May by the Italian police over a war. spate of murders in Europe, but very little is known and very little was revealed. And before these killings this year, there was a spate of murders in Europe last year when six members of a Turkish gang based in Istanbul were killed in Greece, supposedly as retaliation for a boss being killed in Paris.

We also get an incredible Daily Mail headline in September, quote, inside the Turkish mafia's deadly grip on Britain's youth, how a missing teenager in Sussex was secretly linked to a horrifying torture, murder, and London's most terrifying gangsters. I mean, that is a headline that is very good if you make a podcast where all you do is look at news headlines. So, well done to the Daily Mail,

which is not what we are. We do lots of research, and we do our diligent best. But yeah, are they making headlines these days for, like, for podcasters, essentially? I think that might be. Sean's joking because one of the new things we're doing on the Patreon

is just basically going over new stories of the week. related to organized crime with very little research, not like what we do here. And, you know, just reading the headlines and just spouting off nonsense, which is what most podcasts are. But we bring you these episodes. Better. Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah. Turkish mafias, they've kind of been sliding under the radar the last decade or two, I feel like, but they are big and maybe getting bigger. This past March, the French paper Le Monde reported that Turkey has become a haven for drug lords from all over the world. So again, not just Turkish drug lords, but, you know. Mexican, Colombian, Albanian, whatever you want to say.

I think there was a big thing about the Croatian one that was just killed there, right? Didn't I send you an article on that? Oh, you sent me that in the week. Yeah, well, maybe that's what I need to do when I'm out there. So that actually makes sense that it's becoming this haven. It's a major travel point. I mean, anywhere you fly in that part of the world,

it feels like you're connecting in Istanbul. It's got a ton of corruption, a faltering economy. It's a major drug shipment, and trans shipment point and has been. It's at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, and you've got these age-old smuggling routes that have been used for decades used by multiple generations of crime families

as well as high-level government officials and police that are in on it. Also, major ex-back communities across Europe that can be tapped into. And our old friend Ryan Gingeris or Jinjaris, maybe one day I'll learn to say his name, who I'm going to go out on a limb here and say is one of the foremost experts on Turkish organized crime,

says another part of the reason is that in Turkey, it's easy for foreigners to buy property and get to get citizenship. And once they get that passport, Turkey passed an amendment in 2004 that says no Turkish citizen will be extradited to a foreign country because of an offense.

Here's another quote from the Lamanda article. We are experiencing a pivotal moment, said Tamor Soykin, an investigative journalist with the independent daily, Birgoun, and an organized crime specialist. There are arrests and the increasing seizures of all kinds of narcotics,

including cocaine from South America, which is new. Each day, this increasingly, increasingly highlights Turkey's significant role and weight as a drug hub, with its network's protections, a long-standing tradition of connections between the state and criminal organizations, and immense sums being circulated and laundered, making this country a true Mexico of Europe. Wow, I mean, pretty harsh on Mexico, world-class music, food. I mean, Turkish food is just fine, good.

Okay. Meat and rice. Not like Moldovan food, I should add, which is insanely good, and you should all visit Moldova. I can't tell if that's a serious anyway. But yeah, I mean, you know. I think the first bit actually was. I'm going to stand by that, yeah. I love, love Mexico, very pro Mexico right here.

Great times to be had there. Great people. Even I'm getting into Pesso Pluma, you know, like what? It's accordion music. Oh, man, awesome. It's insane. Yeah. When you finally find your thing, you want the whole world to know about that thing.

So you use a thing called Canva to make it an even bigger and better thing. Whether you want to create flyers to that thing, Make presentations for that thing or design merch for that thing. You can do anything. So people can see your thing, feel your thing, love your thing. The next thing you know, it's a thing.

Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and all birds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into...

Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash special offer. At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV! Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live. There were thousands of movies and shows, and they were all the same. free.

The truth is ours. It's just so beautiful. On Pluto TV, free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100 NX files may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials, no credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV, stream now, pay never. Start the spring

season off right with a new pair of Tukovas Western boots. Hand-crafted and over 200 steps from genuine leather. They're built to last and feel broken in the moment you put them on. From cowhide to exotic leathers, Tachovovus blends timeless style with all-day comfort.

Pair them with premium denim, Western shirts, and accessories for an effortless, polished look. Shop quality Western goods in store or online at decovas.com. So Turkey might be giving the Albanians a run for their money in terms of controlling Europe, but let's talk cocaine. Now, the other big news out of this is that Turkish gangs are getting way more involved in the cocaine trade, wholesaling it and making major connections. in Latin America.

It's not just about heroin with them anymore, which as we discussed is entering a drought. So it's really picking up now the cocaine trade, but it's been happening for a bit longer. In 2011, guess who gets popped trying to bring in 40 tons straight from South America into the UK, right into Liverpool?

A third Babish and brother, this one named Mehmet. I mean, what a family, right? They're like the Mannings, right? But instead of quarterbacks who can win Super Bowls, It's just moving around large amounts of drugs. Very good. Very good.

24 people go down in the scheme. Mehmet was personally responsible for bringing in the first three tons as a test run. Inside, I think, tin fish or wooden pellets. And they had 40 more in Latin America ready to go, which is 4 billion pounds worth. That's right. Enough to satisfy a young Sean Williams and his mates from Berlin on a week-long vacation to Majorca or is it Marbea. Like, whichever one is the trashy one.

That's the one I'm going to say you were at. Marbs is for the poses, mate. It's all about doing dentist chairs in Magaloof. That's where I am. I don't know what that means. Good. Let's keep it that way. Whatever, I'll Google it.

Mehmet had teamed up with a local mob in Liverpool in 2008, using his contacts, no doubt from his family connections, and was having meetings with cartel operatives in Caracas, Venezuela. But things don't go according to plan. People are messing up left and right. logistics are a mess and they all get popped in October of 2011. Now, Sean, if I may offer a prediction that just came to me. So you know how we talked about how heroin is drying up in Afghanistan,

which means way less of it in Europe? And of course, Mexico is a major producer, but that goes to the states mostly. So I think fentanyl is coming to Europe in a big way, which I don't think it has yet. I've seen stories about popping up here and there, but think about it. It's so much cheaper than heroin and way more. profitable. And we sort of had that with the U.S. opioid crisis, right? It went from Oxycontin, which was expensive to heroin, which was cheaper, and then to fentanyl, which is cheapest.

And again, you get the most profit margins on fentanyl. Somehow fentanyl hasn't hit Europe big yet, probably because, you know, Chinese chemical dealers were focused on sending it into the U.S. Or into Mexico to go into the U.S. Well, these people, the heroin traffickers, we've been talking about, the Turkish mob, they're profit-oriented, right? They have to know they are missing out on major, major money, and especially with opium drying up, how far off could it be? I mean, I'm kind of shocked. It's not there already. Yeah, undoubtedly, which is very scary, of course, but not as scary as we close out this episode of you leaving me to keep the podcast to float for the next couple weeks while you drink

sake with Jake Adelstein in Tokyo. Hostess bars, which sounds like a dream. It is a dream. It's a dream, and I'll be back in a couple weeks, but I think we have enough episodes done to stem the tide. So hold down the fort. Again, Patreon.com, Session World Podcast. $3 a month to support us,

$5 a month to get bonus stuff. More if you want us to live lives of joy and have a good time, you know? Five. Until next week. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money.

Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion-dollar swings. There's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile, with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment.

Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan. equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.