Iranian drug lord and his gang detained in Istanbul
Çetin Aydın – ISTANBUL
An Iranian drug lord and nine of his gang members have been detained in a raid by police in Istanbul.
Narcotic police detained Naci Sherifi Zindashtia and nine of his associates in a raid carried out in the early morning hours of April 6.
Arzu Sherifi Zindashti, the daughter of Zindashti, and her driver, his nephew, were killed when gunmen in a car opened fire while they were traveling in Istanbul’s Büyükçekmece district in September 2014.
Back on May 27, 2015 police detained 14 people in connection with the murder of the 19-year-old daughter of an Iranian drug dealer in Istanbul.
Zindashti was also reportedly a secret witness in the controversial Ergenekon trial that saw hundreds of people detained on charges of attempting to overthrow the government. Zindashti was arrested in 2007 in Istanbul in possession of 75 kilograms of heroin and was released three years later. He then testified against a number of judges who he accused of taking bribes.
Speaking at the funeral of his daughter, Zindashti said he was the original target of the gunmen, claiming it was the work of an international drug smuggling gang.
However, the subsequent investigation into the movement of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, a former ally of the government now referred to by the authorities as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), has revealed fresh findings about FETÖ’s heroin trafficking activities through Zindashti.
Zindashti allegedly took control of drug trafficking after conspiring against two judges by giving false testimony with the help of fugitive FETÖ-linked prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, who was in charge of conducting the Ergenekon and Balyoz investigations.
