Hüseyin Baybaşin (born 25 December 1956) is a Kurdish drug baron and

crime boss A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, mafia don, mob boss, kingpin, or godfather is the leader of a criminal organization. Description A crime boss has absolute or nearly absolute control over the other members of the organization and is ...

, the former leader of the Baybaşin family. Following his drug trafficking in the 1990s, he made his name internationally. He was a notorious criminal against whom European countries had issued search warrants. In 2002, he was sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

and sent to Nieuw Vosseveld, where he remains today. Baybaşin was born in Lice in 1956. At the age of 14, he was introduced to

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

and was first caught with pounds of

hashish Hashish (; ), usually abbreviated as hash, is a Compression (physics), compressed form of resin (trichomes) derived from the cannabis flowers. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, As a Psychoactive drug, psychoactive ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

in 1976, when he was 20. In the following years, he became a

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

dealer when his family entered the heroin business. With the ''Kısmetim-1'' incident in 1992, he made a name for himself in Turkish and European media. In 1994, he moved to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, where his brother Abdullah Baybaşin was also based. In 1997, Baybaşin was one of the most wanted men by British foreign intelligence

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

. In 1998, his personal fortune was estimated to be at least £22.2 billion in today's pound sterling. Having tracked him down, the intelligence coalition arrested him and his nephew Gıyasettin Baybaşin in a mansion in Lieshout, Netherlands on 27 March 1998 in a joint operation code-named ''Black Tulip''. Baybaşin was once referenced in the Valley of the Wolves, Turkey's most popular TV series about the mafia. Baybaşin is referred to by the European press as the "Europe's

Pablo Escobar Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and politician who was the founder and leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed the "King of Cocaine", Escobar was one of the wealthie ...

". Prosecutor Plummer said of Baybaşin, "We watched him for eight months, it was like watching the movie ''

The Godfather ''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American Epic film, epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling The Godfather (novel), 1969 novel. The film stars an ensemble cast inc ...

''. Every day someone new would come and the first thing they would do was kiss Hüseyin Baybaşin's hand."

Early life

Hüseyin Baybaşin was born in

Lice Louse (: lice) is the common name for any member of the infraorder Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera was previously recognized as an order, until a 2021 genetic study determined th ...

, Diyarbakır, Turkey on 25 December 1956. His family, like every other families in the district, was a Kurdish farmer family with many children. At the age of 14, he met his first drug,

, and started smoking it. When his father Said Baybaşin made drugs an illegal business, he became a drug dealer. In the early 1970s, his uncle Mehmet Şerif Baybaşin started producing drugs by refining

in an isolated village in Lice. In 1976, he was caught while transporting of

. On 23 May 1984, he was arrested in

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

, United Kingdom for smuggling drugs internationally on the basis of a fake passport and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. He was sent from the United Kingdom to Turkey to serve his sentence and served time in Bayrampaşa Prison, but was released in 1989.

Crime bossing

Baybaşin became particularly famous after the MV ''Kısmetim-1'' shipwreck, which shook the public order in Turkey. The ''Kısmetim-1'' which was surrounded by the USS ''Briscoe''-backed Underwater Offence (SAT) team, allegedly carrying ~ of base morphine to be smuggled to Turkey, was sunk by its crew in 1992. 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. Returning from

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, ''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. In 1994, he fled to the United Kingdom to join his brother Abdullah Baybaşin and applied for asylum. In 1995, he was arrested in the

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

for dealing in firearms without a licence.

Operation Black Tulip

In 1997, Hüseyin Baybaşin was on the

blacklist Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

of British foreign intelligence

. His strict confidentiality was difficult to unravel and was discussed with the Dutch ( AIVD), Belgian ( GISS), and German ( BND) intelligence services. It was difficult to

wiretapping Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

to him because he kept changing his

telephone number A telephone number is the address of a Telecommunications, telecommunication endpoint, such as a telephone, in a telephone network, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A telephone number typically consists of a Number, sequ ...

, did not share it with anyone except relatives, and used cryptic phrases in his conversations. The intelligence coalition had a better way to find him: tracking down anyone who knew Baybaşin. Baybaşin was talking to a relative and told him what he was thinking on the phone: "I've a strange feeling, as if we're resting and they are following us. As if something gonna happen. Let's be very careful!". On 25 March 1998, Baybaşin's secret mansion in Lieshout, Netherlands was discovered following a tip-off. On 27 March 1998, the intelligence coalition ordered the Special Intervention Service to conduct an operation and the mansion was surrounded at 7:00 am ( CEST) in an operation code-named ''Black Tulip'' and he was arrested together with his nephew Gıyasettin Baybaşin. Although the two had weapons and ammunition, there was no armed clash.

Trials

After his arrest, Baybaşin was placed in a regular detention center in Rotterdam in April 1998. On 26 June 1998, he was decided to place him in Nieuw Vosseveld, a high-security prison in Vught, Netherlands. Baybaşin were tried and found guilty of murdering,

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, o ...

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...

criminal conspiracy In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance ...

kidnapping Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

, document forgery, drug trafficking, and

arms trafficking Arms trafficking or gunrunning is the illicit trade of contraband small arms, explosives, and ammunition, which constitutes part of a broad range of illegal activities often associated with transnational criminal organizations. The illegal tra ...

on 10 February 2001. Ton Derksen, a Dutch professor emeritus, got access to the telephone recordings which were presented as evidence. According to Derksen, the telephone recordings were manipulated. Baybaşin was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, which was commuted to

in July 2002. Gıyasettin Baybaşin was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment. Abdullah Baybaşin was convicted around the same time and imprisoned in the United Kingdom. On 24 December 2003, Baybaşin was transferred to another prison with a different regime. On 23 March 2004, a psychiatric report found that he had developed various mental problems including chronic

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a Psychological trauma, traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster ...

, depression, and a strong tendency towards somatisation during his detention in the maximum security prison. 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 criminal organisation, establishing a terrorist organisation, and exporting illegal drugs.

Tortures

A search of Baybaşin's house in Green Lanes (London) revealed clues that

had taken place there. This "torture cell", located on the upper floor of the house, had a thick soundproof door, and three layers of glass insulation. In this cell, there were

pliers Pliers are a hand tool used to hold objects firmly, possibly developed from tongs used to handle hot metal in Bronze Age Europe. They are also useful for bending and physically compressing a wide range of materials. Generally, pliers consi ...

, a

drill A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a drill bit for making holes, or a screwdriver bit for securing fasteners. Historically, they were powered by hand, and later mains power, but cordless b ...

, a

chainsaw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable handheld power saw, power saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. Modern chainsaws are typically gasoline or electric and are used in activities such as t ...

, and an electrical torture machine connected to the electrical system of the house with two large metal hooks on the ceiling. Baybaşin was held responsible for the murder and disposal of the body of Murat Kartal, a Turkish gangster and former friend with whom he had a conflict of interest. Kartal's body was later found in 2021 by chance during excavation work in the Pınarbaşı neighborhood of Büyükçekmece, Istanbul, with his clothes on and

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

thrown over him. This led the investigators to conclude that Kartal was probably being buried alive in concrete after tortured.

Personal life

In an interview in prison, he mentioned that he had four children. He painted nearly a thousand oil paintings in prison—closely interested in art. He said that he sold these paintings and donated the proceeds to orphaned children in Diyarbakır. He is a Kurdish nationalist and active supporter and financier of the PKK. He renounced his Turkish citizenship, and while in prison, he became a naturalised Dutch citizen.

Wealth

Baybaşin's assets are disputed. In 1998, his personal fortune was estimated at £10 billion (£ in inflation adjusted 2024 pounds). According to the reports of the Dutch police, in the same year he owned movable and immovable property, but the licences and title deeds of the properties were registered in the name of his relatives, not him, and most of them could not be confiscated: * Five cars, three pieces of valuable land, two furniture companies, and a house in the Netherlands. * A

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

worth €60,000,000 in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. * A hotel and house in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. * A vehicle worth 50,000

marks Marks may refer to: Business * Mark's, a Canadian retail chain * Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain * Collective trade marks A collective trademark, collective trade mark, or collective mark is a trademark owned by an organization (such ...

, land worth ~400,000 marks, and a company in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. * Small plots of lands in Turkey worth $10,500,000 and a car worth ~$70,000. It is estimated that he invested the rest of his fortune in touristic resorts, luxury hotels, and

nightclubs A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and ...

on the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and Aegean coasts.

In popular culture

In the European and American public opinion of the early 2000s, Baybaşin was constantly referred to as "Europe's

" or "European Escobar" and strong family relationships were mentioned by commentators. Robin Plummer, the British prosecutor, made the following statement about Baybaşin: Baybaşin was once referenced in the '' Valley of the Wolves'' (2003–2005), Turkey's most popular TV series about the

mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

. In the 47th episode of the series, a scenario in which the goods of a drug baron named Hüsrev Ağa—from Diyarbakır—sink into the sea with ''Kısmetim-1'' (renamed as ''Nasibim-1'' in the series) was included.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baybasin, Huseyin 1956 births 20th-century Kurdish people 21st-century Kurdish people Dutch drug traffickers Dutch prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Kurdish drug traffickers Kurds in Turkey Living people People from Lice, Turkey Prisoners and detainees of the Netherlands Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the Netherlands Turkish people of Kurdish descent