Hüseyin Baybaşin

Hüseyin Baybaşin
Born Hüseyin Baybaşin
1956
Lice, Turkey
Occupation Drug trafficker
Criminal penalty life in prison
Criminal status in prison
Conviction(s) drug trafficking, conspiracy, kidnapping

Hüseyin Baybaşin (born 1956 in Lice, Turkey) is a Kurdish drug lord. Once described as "Europe's Pablo Escobar",[1] he is currently serving life sentence in the Netherlands convicted of drug smuggling charges.

Rise to leadership of a drug empire

In 1976, he was apprehended with 11 kg (24 lb) hashish found in his house by a raid, and was charged with two years in prison. Later, Hüseyin was arrested in the United Kingdom for possession of fake passport, and sentenced to twelve years. However, he was released after around four years to serve the rest in Turkey. After four months of incarceration in Turkey, he was set free in 1989. Only four days from his release from the prison, he was apprehended in Silivri, a town west of Istanbul, for carrying an unlicensed gun and narcotics. Hüseyin fled abroad but was arrested by the Dutch police in 1995 and served a sentence.[2]

By 1998, the Baybaşins were making millions from exporting heroin to Europe. His elder brother Abdullah Baybaşin, also a drug lord, immigrated to the United Kingdom and set up his business in North London, while Hüseyin choose the Dutch metropole Amsterdam for his base.[1]

Life sentence

On March 27, 1998, Hüseyin was arrested[3] along with his nephew Gıyasettin Baybaşin following a joint operation carried out by the British, Italian, Belgian, German and Dutch police in a villa in Lieshout,.[2][4] He was initially placed in an ordinary detention facility in Rotterdam. On June 26, 1998, it was decided to detain him in a pre-trial detention unit of maximum security in Vught. His incarceration in the Vught Prison was extended several times.[3]

Hüseyin Baybaşin and Gıyasettin were tried[5] and found guilty on February 10, 2001[4] on charges of conspiracy to murder, kidnapping and drug smuggling. Hüseyin was convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison, increased to a life sentence in July 2002.[6] while Gıyasettin received eleven years in prison.[7] Abdullah Baybaşin was also convicted in 2002 and jailed in the United Kingdom.[1]

On December 24, 2003, Hüseyin Baybaşin was transferred to another prison with a different regime. On March 23, 2004 a psychiatric report found that Baybaşin 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.[3]

In the same period, the State Security Court (DGM) in Istanbul tried 21 Turkish people, among them in absentia Hüseyin and Gıyasettin Baybaşın, imprisoned in the Netherlands, and Nizamettin Baybaşin, convicted for fifteen years in prison in Germany, for setting up a criminal organization and exporting illicit drugs. The court concluded the apprehension of those accused.[7]

Hüseyin is believed to have retained most of his vast wealth, which he invested in tourist resorts along the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts.[1]

Kısmetim-1 incident

The ocean freighter MV Kısmetim-1 was intercepted end of 1992 by the Turkish police in Mediterranean, suspected of smuggling about 13,100 kg (28,900 lb) morphine base, worth millions of dollars. The ship was scuttled by the crew during the operation. It was claimed that the drug belonged to a consortium of the ship's owner Osman Ayanoğlu and his partners including Şeyhmus Daş and Hüseyin Baybaşin,[8] all Turkish drug lords. Most of the known drug lords are smuggling through Northern Iraq. PKK also involved in this smuggling according to Turkish officials.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Summers, Chris (April 7, 2006). "The rise and fall of a drugs empire". BBC News. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
  2. 1 2 "Hüseyin Baybaşin hakkında bilgi" (in Turkish). Türkçe Bilgi-Ansiklopedi. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 "Baybasin v. The Netherlands". Netherlands Institute of Human Rights-Utrecht School of Law. Retrieved January 31, 2009.
  4. 1 2 "Case reveals tampering with intercepted evidence" 12 (3). Statewatch bulletin monitoring civil liberties in the European Union. 2002, May - July. Retrieved January 31, 2009. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ↑ "Hüseyin Baybaşin" (in Turkish). Cix1. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  6. ↑ Bennetto, Jason (February 17, 2006). "The wheelchair-bound Godfather who ruled Britain's heroin market". London: The Independent. Retrieved January 31, 2009.
  7. 1 2 "Hüseyin Baybaşin davasında karar haberi" (in Turkish). Haberler. May 9, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  8. ↑ "Keeping tabs on the Turkish connection". BBC News. November 14, 2002. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
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