Levent Kenez/Stockholm
A 27-year police veteran demanding $25,000 to facilitate a request to INTERPOL for a Red Notice for a crime boss has become the latest symbol of Turkey’s deepening law enforcement crisis. The revelation, contained in a recently accepted 288-page indictment by an Istanbul court, exposes how criminal groups and elements within the police have allegedly worked together to weaponize international policing tools for personal gain. The case has renewed fears that Turkey’s use of INTERPOL mechanisms is being exploited not only to pursue political opponents but also to enrich corrupt officials.
The indictment involves an organized crime network said to be led by fugitive Serhat Güngör, who is believed to reside in the Netherlands. Prosecutors allege that the group was involved in two murders and several armed attacks in Istanbul between 2023 and 2025, according to journalist Dinçer Gökçe. The Istanbul Anadolu High Criminal Court has accepted the charges against 32 defendants, 18 of whom are currently under arrest.
What makes the case extraordinary is not just the violence but the presence of a police officer among the accused. Officer Oğuz Karakuş, who has served with the police for 27 years, is accused of exploiting his badge, his network and his knowledge of international police procedures to deceive victims into paying him thousands of dollars.
According to testimony cited in the indictment, Karakuş approached businessman Sedat Karabulut following a series of shootings linked to a turf war in Istanbul. Karabulut told prosecutors that the officer came to his home late at night, introducing himself along with two men he described as being from the organized crime department. The officer allegedly warned Karabulut that he might be the next target of Güngör’s group and asked for names and details about other local rivals, which the businessman provided.
Three days later, Karakuş returned alone. This time, according to the testimony, he said he had powerful contacts in Istanbul’s criminal underworld who could solve the matter. He also claimed that a Red Notice could be issued for Güngör through the INTERPOL channel but that the process involved expenses. Karabulut said the officer asked for $25,000 to speed up the issuance of the notice and claimed he would use the money to pay necessary people within the police.
The businessman told prosecutors he handed over the cash, believing the officer’s story. Over the following weeks he said Karakuş returned several times demanding more funds. Karabulut said he paid an additional $10,000 and 500,000 Turkish lira, as well as transferring money through an associate’s account at the officer’s instruction. In one meeting Karakuş allegedly brought a bulletproof vest, saying Karabulut’s life was in danger and that the cost of the vest would also need to be reimbursed.
The case paints a portrait of a system where criminal figures and law enforcement officers interact in the same gray zone of power and profit. Experts in organized crime say Turkey’s policing institutions have long struggled with internal corruption but that the use of Red Notice manipulation to extort money marks a new level of exploitation.
“This is not just about bribery,” said a former Turkish security official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “When police officers can sell access to INTERPOL processes, it destroys the credibility of international policing. It shows how easily political and criminal interests overlap.”
Investigators believe Karakuş used his long career and his connections in the Istanbul police to convince victims that he could influence international investigations. The Red Notice, typically a tool reserved for serious transnational fugitives, became in his hands a form of leverage that could be bought, delayed or canceled for a price.
The scandal coincides with growing international scrutiny of how Turkey employs INTERPOL channels. Multiple human rights organizations have accused Ankara of submitting politically motivated Red Notice requests to target journalists, opposition activists and dissidents living abroad.
According to official data released in 2024 by Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç, Turkey filed 1,774 extradition requests with 119 countries, most of which were rejected. Independent monitors have found that many of these requests did not meet INTERPOL’s standards for credible criminal cases.
In a detailed report published last week, Nordic Monitor revealed that Turkey’s government is now seeking to increase its influence inside INTERPOL itself. The country has nominated Mustafa Serkan Sabanca, head of Turkey’s INTERPOL Europol National Central Bureau, as a candidate for the organization’s presidency. The election is scheduled for November 24 to 27, 2025, during the INTERPOL General Assembly in Marrakech. Nordic Monitor noted that the bid follows years of effort by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to secure a more dominant position within the organization.
The revelations come against a broader backdrop of rising organized crime in Turkey. The Global Organized Crime Index 2023 scored Turkey at 7.03 out of 10, ranking it 14th globally and first in Europe. The report identified growing risks from human trafficking, arms smuggling and mafia-style networks that maintain close links with political, judicial and business elites.
Analysts say those networks are increasingly exploiting the country’s law enforcement vulnerabilities. “Turkey has become both a corridor for illicit trade and a safe zone for organized groups that can buy influence,” said a European security researcher who studies transnational crime. “The Güngör case shows how the boundaries between state power and criminal enterprise are dissolving.”
Human rights groups have long accused the Erdogan government of using INTERPOL to target exiles and critics, but the inclusion of a veteran police officer in a mafia indictment adds a new dimension, suggesting that what began as a political misuse of Red Notices has evolved into a criminal marketplace within the Turkish police itself.
