Narcoterrorism

The excitement was understandable. Dairo Antonio Usuga, better known in Colombia as 'Otoniel', was the country's most wanted drug trafficker, a former guerrilla turned leader of El Clan del Golfo, the biggest criminal gang in Colombia. 

He was arrested in late October, 500 soldiers and 22 helicopters descending on his rural hideout in northwestern Colombia.

Interior Ministry on Dec. 21 said a narco-terror operation was launched in the southeastern Diyarbakır province of Turkey, with the participation of hundreds of security personnel.

Operation "Kıran-11 Narco-Terror" seeks to hinder the PKK's winter preparations, neutralize its terrorists based in the region, arrest drug dealers and eliminate its financial sources.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) controls 80 percent of the narcotics market in Europe, according to a new Turkish police report. 

The report, titled "Turkey Drug Report," states that the PKK earns $1.5 billion annually from heroin production in northern Iraq, daily Milliyet reported on Aug. 29. 

The fight against narcotics is a matter that concerns the entire nation, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş has said, calling on civil society to support a government-led fight against drug trafficking.