He maintained a struggle that became personal against Judge Baltasar Garzón / He remained protected by the authorities of his country, Turkey, until 2023, when he was arrested / He was associated with narcos from all over Spain, had trusted staff and did not hesitate to use violence to settle scores / He built schools and hospitals to earn the admiration of his compatriots with drug money
Urfi Çetinkaya has passed away. The drug lord who has sent the most heroin to Spain of all time (at least among those known to the police), died this week in the prison where he was serving a 24-year prison sentence that was imposed on him for a lifetime of drug trafficking. Known by the alias of Topal (The Paralytic, in Spain), he was arrested in 2023 in a surprising way, because the security forces thought that the Turkish authorities would continue to protect him until the end of his days, as had already happened in the past. In Spain, Topal was behind the large succession of heroin caches intervened for several years, and engaged in a kind of personal war with the then star judge against drugs in the country, Baltasar Garzón, who combined this struggle with the discovery of the great cocaine kingpins in Galicia.
Linked on several occasions with different factions of the political power of his country and accused at the time of bribing members of the prosecutor's office itself to avoid one of the trials against him, he covered the expenses for the construction of several schools, including institutes, as well as a hospital, all under the name of one of his sons, Orfi Çetinkaya.
Urfi Cetinkaya was police linked to the 1980 coup in Turkey. Years later, in 1988, he ended up prostrated in a wheelchair after an encounter with the authorities in his country. The heroin business was his life, and from then on he began his travels through different countries, especially Spain, where he wove an extensive network of collaborators, some of them his compatriots and others Spaniards.
"He established relationships with other traffickers and, when he was confident, he would take over their organization. He has a lot of dead people on his back. The first time we captured him was in '91, but we had information about him since the eighties. And since then he was the big boss, always working in the shadows, without showing his face." Enrique Juárez, former Heroin chief of the Central Narcotics Brigade describes this in the book 'Traffickers of Death. From heroin to fentanyl’, one of the official works of Narcodiario, the criminal beginnings of Urfi Çetinkaya.
Turmus (one of his partners at the time) and many other Turkish citizens.Everyone who came there paid homage to him, which led the police to glimpse the magnitude of the character who had just arrived in Spain. He was the controller, the boss of the whole organization."
Urfi Çetinkaya had to believe himself untouchable in his native Turkey, where he maintained his residence for years despite arrest warrants issued by Interpol. To wash his image and keep certain sectors of the population happy, he invested money in the construction of half a dozen schools and even a hospital, all named after his son, works that he donated to the Ottoman state. He followed the style of ‘benefactor of the people’ that once made Pablo Escobar, cocaine kingpin, famous in Medellín.
Cetinkaya made the same journey as many other drug lords to gain an important network of contacts in Spain. When he was arrested after the 1991 operation, he established contact with other criminals, great allies of the Turkish drug trafficker throughout his criminal career. Prison was, just as it happened with the cocaine kingpins, the perfect place to attract new partners. "We put it 'to egg' by admitting them to the same prisons," a senior police official stressed at the time.
The drugs arrived on the Peninsula in motorhomes, minivans, buses or tractor wheels. A phrase from Topal will be remembered from that time, after being discovered. "Now I'm going to flood Spain with heroin."
Urfi Çetinkaya has passed away. The drug lord who has sent the most heroin to Spain of all time (at least among those known to the police), died this week in the prison where he was serving a 24-year prison sentence that was imposed on him for a lifetime of drug trafficking. Known by the alias of Topal (The Paralytic, in Spain), he was arrested in 2023 in a surprising way, because the security forces thought that the Turkish authorities would continue to protect him until the end of his days, as had already happened in the past. In Spain, Topal was behind the large succession of heroin caches intervened for several years, and engaged in a kind of personal war with the then star judge against drugs in the country, Baltasar Garzón, who combined this struggle with the discovery of the great cocaine kingpins in Galicia.
Linked on several occasions with different factions of the political power of his country and accused at the time of bribing members of the prosecutor's office itself to avoid one of the trials against him, he covered the expenses for the construction of several schools, including institutes, as well as a hospital, all under the name of one of his sons, Orfi Çetinkaya.
Urfi Cetinkaya was police linked to the 1980 coup in Turkey. Years later, in 1988, he ended up prostrated in a wheelchair after an encounter with the authorities in his country. The heroin business was his life, and from then on he began his travels through different countries, especially Spain, where he wove an extensive network of collaborators, some of them his compatriots and others Spaniards.
"He established relationships with other traffickers and, when he was confident, he would take over their organization. He has a lot of dead people on his back. The first time we captured him was in '91, but we had information about him since the eighties. And since then he was the big boss, always working in the shadows, without showing his face." Enrique Juárez, former Heroin chief of the Central Narcotics Brigade describes this in the book 'Traffickers of Death. From heroin to fentanyl’, one of the official works of Narcodiario, the criminal beginnings of Urfi Çetinkaya.
Turmus (one of his partners at the time) and many other Turkish citizens.Everyone who came there paid homage to him, which led the police to glimpse the magnitude of the character who had just arrived in Spain. He was the controller, the boss of the whole organization."
Urfi Çetinkaya had to believe himself untouchable in his native Turkey, where he maintained his residence for years despite arrest warrants issued by Interpol. To wash his image and keep certain sectors of the population happy, he invested money in the construction of half a dozen schools and even a hospital, all named after his son, works that he donated to the Ottoman state. He followed the style of ‘benefactor of the people’ that once made Pablo Escobar, cocaine kingpin, famous in Medellín.
Cetinkaya made the same journey as many other drug lords to gain an important network of contacts in Spain. When he was arrested after the 1991 operation, he established contact with other criminals, great allies of the Turkish drug trafficker throughout his criminal career. Prison was, just as it happened with the cocaine kingpins, the perfect place to attract new partners. "We put it 'to egg' by admitting them to the same prisons," a senior police official stressed at the time.
The drugs arrived on the Peninsula in motorhomes, minivans, buses or tractor wheels. A phrase from Topal will be remembered from that time, after being discovered. "Now I'm going to flood Spain with heroin."