Turkish Gangster Detained in Northern Cyprus Casino Owner Murder

Turkish police make arrested a notorious mobster inwards recounting to the Feb 8 assassination of a Turkish Cypriot casino owner who himself had golf links to organized crime.

Halil Falyalı was killed inwards a drive-by shot when the motorcade he was traveling inwards was sprayed with bullets by unknown quantity gunmen. This was as it entered the small town of Çatalköy inwards the de facto state of Northern Cyprus. Falyalı’s driver, Murat Demirtaş, was also killed in the attack.

According to the Demirören News Agency (DHA), police force on the Turkish mainland get arrested five people inwards connective with the crime. Among them is Mustafa Söylemez, leader of an infamous criminal organization known as the Söylemez Brothers.

Reign of Terror

The mob achieved notoriety in the 1990s when it fought competition organizations for check of arms and drugs trafficking inwards Turkey via a safari of snatch and murder. Many of its members, including Mustafa Söylemez and his brother, Faysal, were arrested and imprisoned inward 1996.

Prosecutors said at the time they were planning to attempt a rival from a chopper using flamethrowers.

But they were released inwards 2002 as part of a widespread free pardon intentional to simplicity a prison overpopulation crisis that had sparked protests and hungriness strikes among inmates.

A warrant was issued for their rearrest inwards 2004, and the brothers fled to northern Iraq, and later Azerbaijan. Turkish media has verbalized surprise at Mustafa Söylemez’s return inward Turkey.

He was detained inward Constantinople on Feb 9.

Who Was Halil Falyalı?

Falyalı owned the five-star Les Ambassadeurs Hotel & Casino inward Cyprus, as good as a slew of illegal online betting sites, according to Istanbul-based newsprint BirGun.

When Turkey criminalized online gambling, Northern Cyprus became a stand for gaming sites illegally targeting the mainland, and Falyalı cashed in, BirGun explained.

In 2015, Falyalı was accused by the US administration of being piece of an surgical operation that was trafficking diacetylmorphine into the UK. A year later, he was charged with money laundering for washing the proceeds of drug sales inwards the US.

However, he couldn’t live extradited because the US does non recognise Northern Cyprus as an independent state.

Meanwhile, investigators are examining whether his expiry could live linked to the Jan 28 kill of Safak Mahmutyazicioglu. The attorney and former director of Turkish association football whale Besiktas was gunned downwardly inwards a seafood eating place he owned inward the Yeşilköy territorial dominion of Istanbul.

According to several reports in the Turkish media, Mahmutyazicioglu and Falyalı were partners inward an online betting company.

Mahmutyazicioglu was married to Ece Erken, a famous Turkish TV actress and presenter.

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