A belated investigation by Turkish authorities into a sprawling drug trafficking syndicate stretching from Iran to Western Europe has exposed how an Iranian trafficker acquired Turkish citizenship with apparent ease and emerged as a central figure in an international crime network.

The case, largely built on intelligence shared by European law enforcement, reveals a web of traffickers who for years used Turkey as a strategic hub to channel heroin into European markets via Russia and the Balkans.

At the center is Amir Alizadeh, an Iranian national who became known as Nihat Yılmaz after naturalization. Investigators allege that Alizadeh supplied hundreds of kilograms of heroin to the syndicate and laundered the proceeds through property acquisitions and business fronts, embedding himself in Turkey’s financial and legal system as a citizen.

According to prosecutors, the group’s main route ran through Central Asia into Russia, concealing heroin in commercial fruit shipments before moving the drugs across Poland into the Netherlands. In one major operation 784 kilograms of heroin originating in Iran were hidden in four fruit-laden trucks. Russian authorities intercepted 370 kilograms, but 414 kilograms still reached the European market.

That shipment was organized by Iranian trafficker Jelal Salimi Anbi together with Turkish nationals Musa Tahiroğlu and his son Murat Tahiroğlu, routed through Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan before entering Russia. Storage was overseen by Özgür Bedir, a Turkish citizen, while distribution in the Netherlands was coordinated by another Turk, Abdullah Kavçan.

The syndicate’s financial and legal façade was facilitated by prominent Turkish lawyer Osman Mercan and his associates Veysi Gündoğan and Ercan Polat, who set up shell companies to disguise........

© Blitz