Antalya and Mersin Operations Extend 8-Day Crackdown as Adana Probe Names Crypto Among Laundering Rails

Turkish authorities have launched two more illegal betting operations this week, taking legal action against 233 additional suspects whose accounts allegedly handled more than TL 18 billion ($395 million), Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced on X on Monday. The Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office coordinated simultaneous raids across 20 provinces targeting 183 suspects with alleged transaction volumes exceeding TL 11.3 billion ($248 million).

A separate Mersin-based gendarmerie operation detained 50 suspects tied to a network accused of laundering proceeds from foreign-based illegal betting websites, with authorities seizing luxury vehicles, apartments, and other assets allegedly obtained through criminal activity.

“No criminal group is above justice. Our fight against crime and criminal organizations will continue without compromise, with the authority granted by law, until they are rooted out,” Gürlek said, citing networks that he said threatened “the future of our children and our economic security.”

Monday’s operations bring the cumulative tally from four major raids since May 11 past 670 suspects, alongside the May 12 Istanbul AI-assisted operation that detained 108 across 35 provinces and the May 11 Eskişehir investigation that targeted 135 suspects in 33 provinces.

As part of the May 14 Adana investigation, prosecutors detained 161 of 200 suspects named in detention warrants, including pro-government television commentator Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı. The case file alleges the network laundered proceeds from illegal betting and phishing-related fraud through “electronic payment companies, bank accounts, virtual POS systems, foreign exchange offices, jewelers, shell companies and cryptocurrency platforms,” according to Turkish Minute.

Three bank executives, eight police officers, and four lawyers were named in the same Adana case. Kütahyalı’s arrest drew particular attention because he had tweeted “All illegal betting gangs will be eliminated” on May 13, just one day before he was taken into custody at his Istanbul home and transferred to Adana.

Prosecutors allege roughly TL 37.7 million ($800,000) was transferred from his account to other accounts suspected of being used for layering, with TL 15.7 million ($350,000) flowing back from accounts within the same alleged structure. Kütahyalı denied any wrongdoing after his detention.

The enforcement wave executes Erdoğan’s 2025-2026 Action Plan for Combating Illegal Betting and Virtual Gambling, published in the Resmi Gazete on November 1, 2025. MASAK’s 2025 activity report logged 502 analysis files related to illegal betting activities and dispatched 545 intelligence reports to relevant institutions, while transactions worth TL 5.1 billion ($131 million) linked to accounts allegedly used by illegal betting organizers were suspended under anti-money laundering measures.

A similar enforcement action took place in the UK just last month, with the Financial Conduct Authority conducting its first raids on illegal peer-to-peer crypto trading in April after South West Regional Organised Crime Unit officials cited money laundering risk as the central enforcement concern.