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Hüseyin Baybaşin

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Hüseyin Baybaşin
Baybaşin in 2022
Born (1956-12-25) 25 December 1956 (age 67)
Lice, Diyarbakır, Turkey
Other namesEurope's Pablo Escobar
Ağa ("the Chief")
Citizenship Turkey (formerly)
 Netherlands
Criminal statusIn prison
Children4
Relatives
  • Şirin M. Baybaşin (brother)
  • Sait Baybaşin (brother)
  • Abdullah Baybaşin (brother)
  • Mehmet Şerif Baybaşin (uncle)
  • Nedim Baybaşin (cousin)
  • Nizamettin Baybaşin (cousin)
  • Gıyasettin Baybaşin (nephew)
Conviction(s)see: Trials of H. Baybaşin
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment

Hüseyin Baybaşin (born 25 December 1956) is a Kurdish drug baron and organised crime boss. Following his drug trafficking in the 1990s, he made his name internationally. He was a notorious criminal against whom European states had issued search warrants. He is still serving a life imprisonment in Nieuw Vosseveld, where he has been convicted since 2002.

Baybaşin was born in Lice in 1956. At the age of 14, he was introduced to marijuana, but became a heroin dealer when his family became involved in the heroin business in the following years. He was first caught in Istanbul in 1976, when he was 20-year-old, with pounds of hashish. With the Kısmetim-1 incident in 1992, he made a name for himself in Turkish and European press. In 1994, he moved to the United Kingdom, where his brother Abdullah Baybaşin was also based.

In 1997, Baybaşin was one of the most wanted men by British foreign intelligence MI6. In 1998, he's personal fortune was estimated to be at least £40 million in today's pound sterling. Having tracked him down, the intelligence coalition arrested him and his nephew Gıyasettin Baybaşin in a villa in Lieshout on 27 March 1998 in a joint operation code-named "Black Tulip".

Baybaşin is referred to by the European press as the "Europe's Pablo Escobar". Prosecutor Plummer said of Baybaşin, "We watched him for eight months, it was like watching the movie The Godfather. Every day someone new would come and the first thing they would do was kiss Hüseyin Baybaşin's hand."

Early life

[edit]
His uncle Mehmet Şerif Baybaşin in the 1960s

Hüseyin Baybaşin was born in Lice, Diyarbakır on 25 December 1956.[1] His family, like every other families in the district, was a poor Kurdish family with many children.[1][2][3] At the age of 14, he met his first drug, marijuana, and started smoking it.[1][4] When his elder brothers turned drugs into an illegal business, he became a drug dealer.

In the early 1970s, his uncle Mehmet Şerif Baybaşin started producing drugs by refining heroin in an isolated village in Lice.[5]

Crime bossing

[edit]

In 1976, Baybaşin was caught while transporting 24 lb (11 kg) hashish to Istanbul.[6] In 1984, he was arrested in the United Kingdom for smuggling drugs internationally on the basis of a fake passport.[6] He was sent from the United Kingdom to Turkey to serve his sentence but was released in 1989.

The rise

[edit]
See also: Kısmetim-1 incident
While Kismetim-1 sank into the deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea

Baybaşin became particularly famous after the MV Kısmetim-1 shipwreck, which shook the public order in Turkey.[7]

The Kısmetim-1 which was surrounded by the USS Briscoe-backed Turkish Coast Police, allegedly carrying ~6,800 lb (3,100 kg) of base morphine to be smuggled to Turkey, was sunk by its crew in 1992.[8] The captain, who admitted after police interrogation that he received the order from Baybaşin, did not accept the allegations about the presence of drugs on board.[9] Returning from Karachi, Kısmetim-1 had been tagged by the Turkish Narcotics Branch for some time. According to Police Investigators, the ship was going to export the goods from Karachi to Europe via Turkey.[10]

In 1994, he fled to the United Kingdom to join his brother Abdullah Baybaşin and applied for asylum.[11] In 1995, he was arrested in the Rotterdam for dealing in firearms without a licence.[12] Hüseyin and Abdullah moved to North London and chose Amsterdam as their base.[12]

Falling

[edit]

In 1997, Baybaşin was on the blacklist of British foreign intelligence MI6.[13] He's strict confidentiality was difficult to unravel and was discussed with the Dutch (AIVD), Belgian (GISS), and German (BND) intelligence services.[12] Having tracked him down, the intelligence coalition arrested him and his nephew Gıyasettin Baybaşin in a villa in Lieshout, Netherlands on 27 March 1998 in a joint operation code-named "Black Tulip".[14]

Trials

[edit]
Entrance of Nieuw Vosseveld, 2006

After his arrest, Baybaşin was placed in a regular detention center in Rotterdam in April 1998.[13] On 26 June 1998, he was decided to place him in Nieuw Vosseveld, a high-security prison in Vught, Netherlands.[13]

Baybaşin were tried and found guilty of murdering, torture, hostage, racketeering, criminal conspiracy kidnapping, forgery, drug trafficking, and smuggling on 10 February 2001.[14][15] Ton Derksen, a Dutch professor emeritus, got access to the telephone recordings which were presented as evidence.[16] According to Derksen, the telephone recordings were manipulated.[17] Baybaşin was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, which was commuted to life imprisonment in July 2002.[18] Gıyasettin Baybaşin was sentenced to 11-year imprisonment.[19] Abdullah Baybaşin was convicted around the same time and imprisoned in the United Kingdom.[5]

On 24 December 2003, Baybaşin was transferred to another prison with a different regime.[citation needed] On 23 March 2004, a psychiatric report found that he had developed various mental problems including chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and a strong tendency towards somatisation during his detention in the maximum security prison.[13] In the same period, the State Security Court in Istanbul convicted Baybaşin and Gıyasettin Baybaşin, who were imprisoned in the Netherlands, and Baybaşin's cousin Nizamettin Baybaşin, who was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in Germany, on charges of forming a crimainal organisation, establishing a terrorist organisation, and exporting illegal drugs.[19][better source needed]

Tortures

[edit]

A search of Baybaşin's house in Green Lanes revealed clues that torture had taken place there.[20] This "torture cell", located on the upper floor of the house, had a 12 inches (30 centimetres) thick soundproof door, and three layers of glass insulation.[21] In this cell, there were pliers, a drill, a saw, and a electrical torture machine connected to the electrical system of the house with two large metal hooks on the ceiling.[21][22]

Baybaşin was held responsible for the murder and disposal of the body of Murat Kartal, a Turkish gangster with whom he had been friends, but with whom he later had a conflict of interest and became an enemy.[23][24] The body, identified as Kartal's, was found in 2021 by chance in Büyükçekmece, Istanbul, with his clothes on and concrete thrown over him.[23][24] This led investigators to conclude that Kartal was probably buried alive.[23][24] Kartal was therefore killed by torture.

Personal life

[edit]

Baybaşin has four children.[25] He is a Kurdish nationalist and active supporter and financier of the PKK.[26][27][28][29] He renounced his Turkish citizenship, and while in prison, he became a naturalised Dutch citizen.[30][31][32]

Wealth

[edit]

Throughout the 1990s, the Baybaşin brothers made a fortune from heroin trafficking to Europe.[5] In 1998, he's personal fortune was estimated at £18 million (£40 million in inflation adjusted 2024 pounds).[33][34] According to the reports of the Dutch police, in the same year he owned movable and immovable property:[33]

  • 5 cars, 3 pieces of valuable land, 2 furniture companies, and a house in the Netherlands.
  • A mansion worth €6,000,000 in Belgium.
  • A hotel and house in England.
  • A vehicle worth 50,000 marks, land worth 400,000 marks, and a company in Germany.
  • Small plots of lands in Turkey worth $1,500,000 and a car worth $70,000.

It is estimated that he invested a large part of his fortune in touristic resorts, luxury hotels, and nightclubs on the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts.[5]

[edit]

In the European public opinion of the early 2000s, Baybaşin was constantly referred to as "Europe's Pablo Escobar" or "European Escobar" and strong family relationships were mentioned by commentators.[2][35][36]

Robin Plummer, the British prosecutor, made the following statement about Baybaşin:

We watched him for eight months, it was like watching the movie The Godfather. Every day someone new would come and the first thing they would do was kiss Hüseyin Baybaşin's hand. The Baybaşin family terrorized other mafias in the UK for many years.[37]

Baybaşin was once referenced in the Valley of the Wolves, Turkey's most popular TV series about the mafia. In the 47th episode of the series, a scenario in which the goods of a drug baron named "Husrev Aga"—from Diyarbakır—sink into the sea with Kısmetim-1 (renamed as Nasibim-1 in the series) was included.[38]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "En zengin Türk Gangster" (in Turkish). 2002-11-08. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  2. ^ a b "Bir uyuşturucu imparatorluğunun çöküşü" (in Turkish). 2006-05-16. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  3. ^ Baybaşin, Hüseyin (2021-11-22). HÜSEYİN BAYBAŞİN 25 YIL SONRA İLK KEZ CEZAEVİNDE RÖPORTAJ VERDİ (Video) (in Turkish). Netew TV. 03:33 minutes in.
  4. ^ "Baybaşin güç kaybetti" (in Turkish). 2003-01-01. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  5. ^ a b c d Summers, Chris (April 7, 2006). "The rise and fall of a drugs empire". BBC News. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
  6. ^ a b Birand, Mehmet Ali (2021-05-10). Türkiye’de Uyuşturucu Dünyası ile Bürokrasi | Hüseyin Baybaşin | 1997 (Video) (in Turkish). 32.Gün. 17:55 minutes in.
  7. ^ "Keeping tabs on the Turkish connection". BBC News. November 14, 2002. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
  8. ^ "Kısmetim 1 Davasında Yeni Karar" (in Turkish). Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved January 18, 2009.
  9. ^ Akyol, Fuat (January 5, 2004). "Nejat Daş Olayının Perde Arkası". Aksiyon (in Turkish). Archived from the original on February 23, 2007. Retrieved January 18, 2009.
  10. ^ Fıratlı, Nurhan (January 13, 2001). "Yükümüzü Atom Sanıyordum" (in Turkish). Sabah. Retrieved 2024-08-08.
  11. ^ Pallister, David (2006-05-15). "Turkish drug gang leader jailed for 22 years". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  12. ^ a b c "Hüseyin Baybaşin hakkında bilgi" (in Turkish). Türkçe Bilgi-Ansiklopedi. Retrieved January 25, 2009.[permanent dead link]
  13. ^ a b c d "Baybasin v. The Netherlands". Netherlands Institute of Human Rights-Utrecht School of Law. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved January 31, 2009.
  14. ^ a b "Case reveals tampering with intercepted evidence". Statewatch bulletin monitoring civil liberties in the European Union. 12 (3). May–July 2002. Retrieved January 31, 2009.
  15. ^ "Hüseyin Baybaşin" (in Turkish). Cix1. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  16. ^ Koch, Han (January 26, 2016). "Bewijs in zaak Koerdische Turk Baybasin 'was gemanipuleerd'". Trouw.
  17. ^ Haenen, Marcel (May 12, 2014). "'Vervalste telefoontaps gebruikt bij vervolging Huseyin Baybasin'". NRC.
  18. ^ Bennetto, Jason (February 17, 2006). "The wheelchair-bound Godfather who ruled Britain's heroin market". The Independent. London. Retrieved January 31, 2009.
  19. ^ a b "Hüseyin Baybaşin davasında karar haberi" (in Turkish). Haberler. May 9, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  20. ^ "Baybaşin'den Londra'nın göbeğinde işkence". Hürriyet (in Turkish). 2006-04-30. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  21. ^ a b "Baybaşinlerin işkence hücresi". internethaber.com (in Turkish). 2006-04-30. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  22. ^ "Baybaşin'in işkence odası". Milliyet (in Turkish). 2006-05-01. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  23. ^ a b c "Gizemli kazının arkasında bir cinayet, 2 şüpheli polis ve uyuşturucu baronları çıktı". turkulak.com (in Turkish). 2022-02-03. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  24. ^ a b c "Polisler 'itirafçı' oldu; sahte belgeyle gözaltı, Çağlayan Adliyesi önünde Baybaşin'lere teslim, işkenceyle cinayet!". turkulak.com (in Turkish). 2022-02-13. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  25. ^ Baybaşin, Hüseyin (2021-11-22). HÜSEYİN BAYBAŞİN 25 YIL SONRA İLK KEZ CEZAEVİNDE RÖPORTAJ VERDİ (Video) (in Turkish). Netew TV. 03:22 minutes in.
  26. ^ "Keeping tabs on the Turkish connection". BBC News. November 14, 2002. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
  27. ^ "Baybaşin ailesinin PKK ile ilişkisi var" (in Turkish). 2006-04-25. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  28. ^ Dundar, Ugur (March 14, 1999). "PKK-Uyuşturucu bağlantısı" (in Turkish). Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  29. ^ Zwaap, René (22 June 2002). "Aftappers in het nauw" (in Dutch). De Groene Amsterdammer. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  30. ^ Bakker, P. H. (2 April 2007). Aangifte van strafbare feiten (PDF) (in Dutch). pp. 8–9. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  31. ^ Laizer, Sheri (January 24, 2017). "Crushing The Kurds: Unraveling A Conspiracy". Ekurd.net. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
  32. ^ "25 YILDIR HOLLANDA'DA HAPİS YATAN BAYBAŞİN'İN, "HAK ETTİĞİ HALDE" NEDEN SERBEST BIRAKILMADIĞI TARTIŞILIYOR…". platformdergisi.com (in Turkish). 2023-11-06. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  33. ^ a b Öztürk, Saygı (1998-03-31). "Baybaşin'in servetine el konuldu". Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  34. ^ "Baybaşinler". 2002-06-10. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  35. ^ "Heroin dealer was secret informer for Customs and Excise". TheGuardian.com. 27 March 2006.
  36. ^ Carlson, Brian G (2005). "Huseyin Baybasin -- Europe's Pablo Escobar". SAIS Review of International Affairs. 25 (1): 69–70. doi:10.1353/sais.2005.0004. ISSN 1945-4724. Archived from the original on 2019-08-14. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  37. ^ "Dava 7 yılda bitmedi, Abdullah Baybaşin tahliye oldu". Haberturk (in Turkish). 2017-10-02. Retrieved 13 July 2024. Savcı Plummer: Sekiz ay boyunca onu izledik, sanki The Godfather filmini izliyor gibiydik. Her gün yeni biri gelirdi ve ilk iş Baybaşin'in elini öpmek olurdu. Baybasin ailesi uzun yıllar boyunca BK'deki diğer mafyalara korku saldı.
  38. ^ Gemiyi Batırıyoruz ! - Kurtlar Vadisi | 47.Bölüm (in Turkish). YouTube. 2022-09-27. 6:02 minutes in. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
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