Turkey had on Wednesday said that it had detained 56 high-priority suspects wanted by 18 countries for crimes spanning from drug dealing and money laundering to murder, counterfeiting and assault.
The Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya had said the suspects were catalogued on Interpol’s “red notice” on “diffusion message” systems, which identify suspects sought for apprehension and extradition by individual countries.
The detained persons were wanted in the United States, Germany, India, and several ex-Soviet republics as well as other parts of Asia and the Middle East.
Yerlikaya’s office however, did not reveal their names, highlighting only that the suspects were gathered together in planned security sweeps across 11 provinces, including in Istanbul.
The Turkish interior ministry and MIT intelligence service have revealed how they organised a rapid series of high-profile raids in recent weeks.
They had previously announced the imprisonment of over 200 people reportedly linked to Islamic State group jihadists in two separate raids ahead of the New Year celebrations.
Then on Tuesday, January 2, they announced the detention of 34 people accused of spying for Israel.
