Tuesday, September 10th 2002: Kamal, the King of Synthetic Narcotics

Kamal had long before drawn the attention of the Narcotics Squad and even that of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service. He led a strong heroin-dealing network in Turkey, taking drugs to Western countries.

The most important operation of the Romanian Organized Crime Squad this year was the annihilation of an important drug trafficking network smuggling narcotics out of Turkey and into Western Europe via Romania. The operation began with the arrest of Sami Aida Ali, considered by the police to be a key-figure of the network. While searching his home in Snagov, Romania the police discovered two pieces of equipment used to compress synthetic drugs into pills, an industrial fine grinder, a special electric stove, formulas to prepare acetic anhydride (a heroin precursor), a photocopied counterintelligence course, and over a ton of heroin precursors and telephone tapping devices. The day after Sami’s arrest, his accomplices dumped another 420 kilos of saffre into the Snagov forest in order to get rid of all evidence. The police discovered that the suspect.s name was not really Sami Aida Ali. After sharing his fingerprints with the Turkish police, the police found out that the suspect was in fact a Kurd; his real name was Halis Halitoglu, a.k.a. Kamal and he was born in 1971 in Baskale, Turkey. In 1991 he had already been convicted to 18 years in prison for drug trafficking. He was also a suspect in two murder cases in Greece and Bulgaria, and in ordering the assassination of his business partner Hakki Demirel in Romania.

Prior to his assassination, Hakki Demirel was already a considered a suspect by the Romanian Narcotics Squad, yet his involvement in a trafficking network was never proven. After his murder, Hakki.s relatives refused to collaborate with the Romanian authorities. Furthermore, they were determined to seek justice on their own. One of Hakki.s brothers came to Romania and hired a Turkish assassin to avenge his death. The hired gun was Mehmat Kaya, aged 27. He was arrested before he could carry out his contract. Mehmet stated that he had received money and a revolver to liquidate Hakki.s assassins or the one who had ordered his death, Halis Halitoglu, also known as Kamal. Our investigation revealed that Hakki was murdered due to his involvement in drug trafficking. The network that Hakki had been working for years was lead in Romania by none other than Kamal. Kamal had long before drawn the attention of the Narcotics Squad and even that of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service. He led a strong heroindealing network in Turkey, taking drugs to Western countries. In order to enter Romania freely, Kamal employed several identities under which he established several firms. Kamal had connections with the most powerful Turkish mafia clan in Western Europe - the Baybasins. According to the German secret service, the Baybasin network holds the monopoly on all heroin transports from Turkey to Western Europe. In 1998, following an impressive police intervention, several leaders of the Baybasin family werearrested in Holland, Germany, Turkey and the Great Britain. The head of the network, a 44 year oldTurkish citizen named Huseiyn, was recently convicted to 20 years in jail. However his network continues to function. The conflict between Kamal and Hakki, who was eventually murdered, was triggered by the disappearance of a 90 kilos heroin shipment. The leaders of the network decided that Hakki was to blame for the deed, and that he should pay with his life. Of the 90 kilos, more than half belonged to the Baybasins. Hakki stole the heroin and then claimed that the narcotics together with the truckdriver that transported them had been captured in Bulgaria. The story did not hold water and Hakki was murdered.

In fact, the presence of the Baybasins on Romanian soil was first recorded in 1997 when Nizamettin Baybasin, the cousin of mafia leader Huseiyn Baybasin, established a limited company in Bucharest. 1997 was also the year when Kamal entered Romania for the first time. Applying for asylum under the name of Sami Aido Sali, Kamal attempted to open a series of businesses in Bucharest. They all failed. He managed only to marry a Romanian citizen and to father a child, although he was very well aware that he was still wanted for an 18 year term in jail for drug trafficking. His next step was to approach a counterintelligence officer, with the recommendation of the PKK coordinator in Romania at the time. Claiming that he wanted to become Christian, Kamal asked the former counterintelligence officer to become his godfather. He was baptized as Steven (Stefan in Romanian). A most surprising detail is that the Head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Teoctist himself, baptized him. The Romanian Orthodox Church denied this information stating that Teoctist does not holds baptism sermons, although he might have been present at the mass. Kamal was also one of the sponsors of the PKK. After a while he refused to contribute to PKK funds, which led to the deterioration of relations between him and the Kurdish organization. He was kidnapped by several of his fellow Kurds in downtown Bucharest and the kidnappers attempted to make him change his mind. After his release Kamal did not complain to the police, but he refused to give any more money to the PKK, a fact that further deteriorated relations between him and his fellow Kurds. In fact Kamal claims that the entire drug-dealing accusation is nothing but the revenge of the PKK, which is also attempting to lay the blame on him for the assassination of Demirel. He claims that the PKK stole the drugs and ordered the assassination of Demirel, who owed the party several hundreds of thousands of Deutsche Marks and spread rumors about him mandating Demirel.s murder. However, since his arrest investigations on Kamal were pressed forward. He was confronted with another Turkish national, Deniz Celikoglu, who was also arrested by the Romanian police. Celikoglu claimed that he had sold Kamal 150 kilos of speed in 1998, which is used to prepare Ecstasy pills. Kamal denied any involvement. Celikoglu, a 46 year-old chemist, was captured by the police in 2001 in Bragadiru, Romania where he led a clandestine Ecstasy operation in a garage.

Our sources revealed that Kamal was an important link in an international network that smuggled both heroin and Ecstasy out of Turkey. At present Kamal is under arrest, forgotten by all except his relatives who are struggling to avoid his extradition to Turkey where he is wanted for extensive jail terms. At one time Kamal intended to file a complaint with the Military Prosecutor.s Office stating that he was in fact employed as a secret agent by the Romanian intelligence, who subsequently abandoned him remorselessly.