On 15 November 1992, the Turkish merchant ship MV ''Kısmetim-1'' (), 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 ...

, Pakistan, was sunk by its crew in the international waters of the

Mediterranean Sea 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 Eur ...

after being surrounded by the USS ''Briscoe''-backed Underwater Offence (SAT) team. It was on the list of the Turkish Narcotics Branch because it was suspected of carrying about ~ of base

morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...

to be smuggled into Turkey. Since the alleged drugs were never seized, it remained a scandal in the media. The ship, licensed in the name of Turkish shipowner Osman Ayanoğlu, was supposedly carrying goods belonging to

Hüseyin Baybaşin Hüseyin Baybaşin (born 25 December 1956) is a Kurdish drug baron and crime boss, 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 w ...

and Şeyhmus Daş. The captain, who did not take initiative during the police interrogation, cited Hüseyin Baybaşin's orders as the reason for the sinking. According to the allegations, Baybaşin, who did not want the drugs to fall into the hands of the police, reached the captain via

satellite phone A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio link through satellites orbiting the Earth instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. Therefo ...

and ordered him to sink the ship.

Background

On 7 October 1991, MV ''Kısmetim-1'' set sail from

Gulf of İzmit Gulf of İzmit (), also referred to as İzmit Bay, is a bay at the easternmost edge of the Sea of Marmara, in Kocaeli Province, Turkey. The gulf takes its name from the city of İzmit. Other cities and towns around the bay are Gebze, Körfez, ...

, Pakistan, to carry paint material. As the ship docked at the destination port, Celal Kambur, the ship's purser started a conversation with the port policeman Yousuf Chacha. The Pakistani policeman asked the Turkish crew member to deliver a package to

Ajman Ajman ( '; Gulf Arabic: عيمان ''ʿYmān'') is the capital of the emirate of Ajman in the United Arab Emirates. It is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, fifth-largest city in UAE after Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Al Ain. Loca ...

, a port in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. The package contained

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 ...

at a price of US$1 per gram. Soon after leaving the

Port of Karachi The Port of Karachi (, ''Bandar gāh Karāchī'') is one of South Asia's largest and busiest deep-water seaports, handling about 60% of the nation's cargo (25 million tons per annum) located in Karachi, Pakistan. It is located on the Karachi H ...

, the captain received a radio message saying that the ship's owner Osman Ayanoğlu was ambushed and murdered. On the way to Port of Ajman before dawn, the captain ordered to pickup goods from a motorboat on high sea, which docked the ship. More than 100 sacks were pulled up into the ship in the darkness. The captain told the crew that the sacks contained

nuclear material Nuclear material refers to the metals uranium, plutonium, and thorium, in any form, according to the IAEA. This is differentiated further into "source material", consisting of natural and depleted uranium, and "special fissionable material", con ...

for the

Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation The Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation ( or MKE for short), established in 1950, is a reorganization of government-controlled group of factories in Turkey that supplied the Turkish Armed Forces with military products. History Its root ...

. The ship arrived in Ajman to unload fertilizer. Celal Kambur met the Pakistani drug dealer and received the money in a restaurant. The delivery of the drug package took place at 23:00 local time the same day by throwing to a boat, which pulled alongside the ship. The next morning, police raid the ship and found the money of US$10,000 from the drug trade on Celal Kambur. He was tried and found guilty for the drug crime. The ship moored at the port for six months during the trial and was only allowed to leave as the trial ended, and Celal Kambur was put into prison. Celal Kambur served his heavy prison sentence and was pardoned after nine years by the emir of Ajman, one of the seven emirates of the UAE federation.

Operation

Since its departure from Karachi, the ship was under close surveillance by the United States

DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domes ...

, which was forwarding all the relevant information to the Turkish Police. The incident in Ajman was very disappointing for the US and Turkish law enforcement services since they feared the main smuggle would have been revealed. Finally, the ship passed through the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

and sailed into the Mediterranean Sea. Three Turkish Navy warships, the frigate TCG ''Yıldırım'' (F 243), the destroyer TCG ''Savaştepe'' (D 348), the submarine rescue ship TCG ''Akın'' (A 585) and the US destroyer USS ''Briscoe'' (DD-977) carrying Turkish and US narcotic policemen as well as maritime patrol aircraft of type

P-3 Orion The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. It is based on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner by Lockheed; it is e ...

deployed from

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

intercepted the ship in high sea before she tried to escape to

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, a country, which Turkey has no good international relations with. Following the four days lasting joint operation, the ship went down with all its load, the nine crew were rescued. The US and Turkish officials claimed that the crew deliberately sank the ship in order to prevent the capture of the drug load. The ship's crew denied this allegation before the court declaring that the ship sank due to rough sea. The operation was led on site by Necdet Menzir, director of Istanbul Police Department and Mestan Şener, head of the narcotics bureau.

Mehmet Ağar Mehmet Kemal Ağar (born on 30 October 1951) is a Turkish former police chief, politician, government minister and leader of the Democratic Party. He was a police officer who rose to General Director of the General Directorate of Security (effec ...

, director general of the Turkish Police and Ismet Sezgin, minister of interior, were in command of the operation.

Aftermath

Şeyhmus Daş was shot to death on December 25, 1992 in Istanbul in his car when he was on the way to a wedding ceremony along with his wife and two daughters. The killing occurred ten days after the Kısmetim-1 incident and two weeks before the Lucky-S incident, another drug smuggling operation on the sea. Nejat Daş, son of Şeyhmus Daş, who had carried out the drug trade negotiations in Karachi on behalf of his father, was tried at the 2nd State Security Court (DGM) in

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 ...

and found guilty of

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...

. He was charged with 5 years and 10 months of heavy prison sentence. He escaped the prison on November 8, 1994, as he was brought from

Sinop Fortress Prison Sinop Fortress Prison () was a state prison situated in the inside of the Sinop Fortress in Sinop, Turkey. As one of the oldest prisons of Turkey, it was established in 1887 within the inner fortress of the centuries-old fortification located on ...

to the 1st DGM in Istanbul for trial due to his involvement in the Lucky-S incident.

In popular culture

Turkish

TV series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

Valley of the Wolves ''Valley of the Wolves'' () is a Turkish media franchise created by Osman Sınav. The franchise includes television series, films, and books. It became popular in Turkey, with high ratings for the television series and box-office success for th ...

features this ship as Nasibim-1 in a drug-related incident.

References

Notes