Organizational Structure of PKK and Non-PKK-Linked Turkish Drug Trafficking Organizations: The Influence of Social Bonds

Abstract

Drugs and drug-related crime problems pose major threats to societies around the world in terms of their negative consequences at both individual and societal levels. Turkish drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs) have ethnic, social, geographic, and economic ties with Turkey’s eastern neighbors, the Balkan Region, and Europe, and are considered to play major roles in the drug trade. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has also had a longstanding presence in the drug trade in this region.