ANKARA, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Turkish authorities seized nearly 64,000 liters of counterfeit alcohol and 97,000 bottles of fake liquor in a nationwide crackdown across all 81 provinces, the country's Interior Minister Ali Yerikaya said Tuesday.
The sweeping operations led to the detention of 137 suspects involved in the production and distribution of counterfeit liquor, Yerikaya said on social media platform X.
He added that the operations were coordinated by local police and gendarmerie forces, with support from the Ministry of Interior's anti-smuggling and organized crime units, without specifying the time frame of the raids.
The crackdown follows a surge in recent deaths in Türkiye attributed to the consumption of fake alcohol. According to the announcement by Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on April 22, the number of people who lost their lives due to counterfeit liquor in Ankara in the last two months increased to 105.
Recently, multiple regions across Türkiye have reported similar incidents, primarily driven by the rising prices of alcoholic drinks, leading authorities to ramp up efforts to combat illegal alcohol manufacturing. ■