In my previous article for Daily Sabah, I discussed the PKK’s involvement in the drug trade since its early days, tracing the routes of these transactions and highlighting the countries and groups that have contributed to the industry’s growth. In this following piece, I will explain how drug money is utilized and how political dynamics across the region have created a favorable environment for the PKK and its affiliates to thrive.
Where does drug money go?
The PKK plays a dominant role in Türkiye’s narcotics smuggling industry. Money earned through the drug trade constitutes one of the principal sources of its revenue, which is used to buy advanced weapons from European markets and expand its military and political capabilities. The PKK tends to lure the young by offering mild drugs free of cost first and later dragging them into its trade permanently. The drug money is also utilized to lobby with the major powers across the world to achieve its political objectives and fund the big media houses to raise their issue and veil their terror activities. It is also siphoned off to support its operatives in Türkiye and neighboring countries and to achieve their political objectives. They have close contact with several overseas Kurdish groups and one such group is the Belgium-based Congress of the European Kurdish Democratic Community. In 2022, the Council for Europe backlisted thirteen persons associated with the group for their involvement in the illicit trade.
The PKK forcefully drags minors into the drug swamps, and several leading figures of the PKK, like Cemil Bayık (one of the founding members of PKK), Duran Kalkan (commander of the PKK’s terrorist forces) and several others, have been blacklisted by the EU countries. Today, PKK-controlled drug networks have deep roots in the market of Europe and the United States. According to a report published by the U.S.’s General Directorate of Security, the PKK has used the earnings through drug trafficking to widen the networks of its activities and enrolled more and more youth in the PKK because the easy access to banned stimulating drugs also attracts the youth. A U.K. intelligence report has recently also linked the London-based notorious drug gang Tottenham Boys group with the PKK, which has a membership of 400 and is responsible for distributing Grade A and B drugs in Northern and Central London and the same report indicates that three Moldova-based drug peddlers were part of the PKK.
New drug route: Syria
With the ushering of the Arab uprising coupled with the political chaos across the region, the PKK found an uncontested geographical terrain to expand its drug trade and consequently, in the last decade, its drug empire has upped many notches. The rise of ISIS and the subsequent U.S. support to the PKK/YPG in the guise of combating ISIS offered a favorable environment to the PKK and its affiliates to deepen its imprint, which eventually helped the PKK’s drug empire as well. Because of the growing U.S.-PKK/YPG alliance in Syria, the PKK acquired new leeway in Syrian internal politics and emerged as a catalyst in the burgeoning drug trade.
For a long time, most of the fertile agricultural lands in northern Syria have been controlled by regional Kurdish people, but with the weakening authority of Assad, these lands began to be used for the cultivation of cannabis to mint money. In recent years, the PKK/YPG has been reported to force the locals to cultivate only cannabis in the areas controlled by them. They also coordinate smuggling between Syria and Europe.
The trained drug peddlers inside the PKK/YPG carry the drugs through the Syrian border to other countries, and they also use drone services, which can have three to five kilograms of banned and costly drugs in a single flight. These drugs are passed on to Lebanese territories through various middlemen to market them into other Arab nations and some are resent to Türkiye to be sold in European markets for higher prices. Amid the growing influence of PKK/YPG in their zone, they started to grow more drug-related plants like poppy, hemp, marijuana and cannabis to make huge amounts of money in a short span.
To evade the general gaze, they grow corn around the farming tract and drug plantations in the middle of the tract. The PKK/YPG has created a special cell to protect and hide the drug cultivation in the areas run by the North and East Syrian Autonomous Administration. The rampant production has increased drug addiction in the region and the price of some drugs is cheaper than cigarettes.
Apart from cannabis, the most known drug in Syria is Captagon. In one of the operations launched by the Turkish force, around a million Captagon pills were seized in the region controlled by PKK/YPG. Similarly, during the 2018 Olive Branch operation in Afrin, security forces found concrete tunnels that the PKK used to smuggle drugs into Türkiye. Drugs have become a tool to lure youngsters and the rampant use of drugs is likely to render them defunct, fatigued and despondent. The control of huge lands by the PKK/YPG has created a prosperous zone for drug cultivation and like in Türkiye and Europe, the PKK/YPG officials have established special cells to supervise the drug trade and money laundering.
Though in the past, the Turkish authorities have launched many operations to bust these drug operatives in the country, the international community does not cooperate with Türkiye on this matter. Türkiye has repeatedly warned the EU about PKK’s threat to public order in the region. However, the EU seems to have overlooked the warning and failed to take the necessary action despite the fact Germany hosts the largest number of followers of PKK/YPG. Drug trafficking is a global menace and it needs global efforts and cooperation among different countries to fight it. There should be no politics in dealing with this peril; otherwise, it would lead to many new crises in the world, which is already trapped in the vortex of numerous calamities.