Turkish police on Tuesday detained 23 suspects, including two pharmaceutical warehouse owners, a security guard and a police officer, who have been providing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)’s Qandil cadre with medication.
The police seized medication worth approximately TL 2 million in simultaneous raids.
Turkish police had been monitoring the suspects for six months and launched an operation dubbed as “Stop wayfarer,” which is related to the Battle of Çanakkale, dealing a great blow to the PKK.
It was uncovered that the suspects had been using the identity information of people who are seriously ill and that pharmacy workers who are a part of the network had been adding more medication than was necessary to the patients’ e-prescription. They also prescribed medication to healthy people without their knowledge.
Turkey uses a digital e-prescription system which doesn’t allow patients to see how many drugs have been prescribed. The suspects acquired the identities of patients by waiting in front of hospitals, under the pretext of helping them.
The pharmaceuticals that the PKK-linked network sent to northern Iraq via the Khabur border gate were used in the treatment of wounded terrorists.
Northern Iraq’s Qandil Mountains have been a haven for PKK terrorists over the past few decades. Considered as the main base of the PKK, which control checkpoints and entrances to the mountains, the structuring in the area is used for cover and concealment by terrorists.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. The PKK has been conducting armed violence in the southeastern part of Turkey since 1984. More than 40,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the three-decade long conflict.
Police are still searching for an additional seven suspects.
