In a strike against an international drug- smuggling gang, drug investigators seized more than one tonne of heroin in the Turkish capital Istanbul, the city's Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah said Saturday, dpa reported. In raids in several outlying districts of the European part of the city nine suspected gang members were arrested, Cerrah said. Narcotics officers also seized 152,00 euros and 29,000 dollars, believed to have been earned from the sale of drugs, in the raids that took place Friday following five months of investigations. The packaged drugs were found in the Florya district of Istanbul and in a farmhouse in the coastal village of Silivri, some 50 kilometres outside the city. Some of the heroin, which was smuggled into Turkey from an unnamed Asian country, was destined for sale in Europe, while the rest was intended for Turkey. There were no details given about the market value of the total of one tonne and 51 kilogrammes of heroin.
