Monday, September 10th 2001: "The Murder in Colentina Proves How the Dreaded Baybasin Clan Extended Its Tentacles Into Bucharest: The Champions of Heroin Have Entered Romania"
Sorin Ozon, Stefan Candea
At the end of July 2001, Hakki
Demirel, a Turkish citizen of Kurdish origin residing in Romania, was shot in
front of his home, in the Colentina residential district. From the very
start the police made the assumption the murder was the result of a settlement
of accounts within a drug trafficking ring. The officers in the Anti-Drug Brigade
[General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Drugs, DGCCOA] had been
watching Hakki Demirel for some time. However, his involvement in such a ring
could never be proved. According to recent information, yesterday, the Bucharest
Prosecuting Magistracy issued arrest warrants for two persons suspected of committing
the murder in Colentina. Nevertheless, Hakki Demirel's murder exposed some important
international drug traffickers' connections here. They proved the presence in
Romania of the Baybasin clan, which is the most powerful mafiosi clan in Europe.
Two men, who had arrived in a silvery BMW 220 car, murdered Hakki Demirel late at night, in front of his home. Yesterday, the Bucharest Prosecuting Magistracy issued warrants for the arrest of the two murderers. Two names are already being circulated. According to many members of the Turkish community in Bucharest, the two names are Nurtin Sahin and Ahmed Bozgan. These Turkish citizens have already been placed under general pursuit, and the border police were informed about them. However, a month ago, the case took on a different aspect, when the police arrested the Turkish citizen Mehmat Kaya, age 27. He had $5,000 and a .9 mm caliber Browning pistol on him. He told the investigators he had received the money and the gun from Hakki Demirel's relatives, to liquidate the two murderers in Colentina, or the person who ordered the murder. In accordance with the investigators' information, the latter is a Turkish citizen nicknamed Kamal.
Kamal, the Ghost
"Kamal - Orhan is his true name - leads the ring for which Hakki had been working for many years in Romania," sources in the police told us, asking to remain anonymous. According to the same sources, Orhan Ilhan, alias Kamal, is of Kurdish origin. He was born on 2 February 1969 in Baskale, Turkey. The services specialized in fighting drug trafficking and even the SIE [Foreign Intelligence Service] have kept Orhan under surveillance for a long time. According to our sources in the IGP [Police General Inspectorate], Orhan is leading a powerful heroin-distribution ring from Turkey toward the Western countries. Orhan has allegedly used several identities to enter Romania and to set up various companies. Neither the policemen, nor the secret services' agents were able to find out where he lives. Orhan supposedly uses a counter-surveillance car. He changes the cars as he travels, or he simply walks. A sole commercial company is registered on Orhan's name in Romania. It is called REBER Impex SRL [limited responsibility company], set up long ago, in 1994. The company is registered as operational with the Trade Registrar. The police keep saying that Orhan travels in a green Rover Freelander car, license plate B-29-RBR.
Heroin Connections
The murder that was committed
at the end of July in Colentina revealed an extremely important piece of information:
Orhan's ring's connection with the most powerful Turkish mafiosi clan in Western
Europe - the Baybasin family. According to the German secret services' (BND)
reports, the Baybasin ring holds the monopoly on heroin transports from Turkey
to Western countries. Following a spectacular move carried out in 1998, several
leaders of this family were arrested in the Netherlands, Germany, Turkey, and
UK. Huseyin Baybasin, the ring's leader, a 44-year-old Turkish citizen, recently
was sentenced to 20 years'
imprisonment. However, the authorities failed to dismantle his ring, which keeps
functioning.
Life as a Settlement of Accounts
The conflict that emerged between Orhan and Hakki (the one that was murdered), came out owing to the disappearance of 90 kg of heroin several months ago, a quantity that belonged to Orhan. "Hakki was responsible for the heroin's disappearance, and his partners decided he had to pay with his life," the same members of the Turkish community told us. The same sources told us that more than half of that 90 kg of heroin belonged in fact to the Baybasin family. Orhan was merely a link in the Baybasin family's ring. Hakki supposedly took the commodity and tried to turn it to value on his own. Following this, he allegedly claimed before the Baybasin family that the drugs were seized in Bulgaria, together with a TIR [international road transport] vehicle's driver, who carried them. The explanation was not accepted, and Hakki paid with his life.
Baybasin in Romania
We have learned that Huseyin
Baybasin's relatives (the ring's leader) have reached our country. Consequently,
a certain Nizamettin Baybasin, the great mafiosi's cousin, set up a company
in Romania, in October 1997, which is named Interprice Turism SRL. The object
of
activity: hotels and motels with restaurants. The original headquarters was
in Cotroceni. In 1998 it moved to Decebal Boulevard. Now, at the company's address,
which is registered as operational, not one Turkish citizen can be found. The
SRL's registered capital is $1.1 million even now. Nizamettin was arrested in
Germany at the end of March 1998, within an ample international operation, which
led to the arrest of the Baybasin ring's most important members in the Netherlands,
Belgium, UK, and Italy. Over the development of the operations, the
Western authorities found out that the Baybasin family had in Romania at least
$1.5 million in cash, $70,000 in real estate property, and several luxury cars.
We must point out that the Western secret services pointed out the Baybasin
clan's involvement in financing some of the
PKK's [Workers' Party of Kurdistan] terrorist activities, using some of the
profits obtained from drug trafficking operations.