Drug lord caught… and a new fleet of luxury police cars arrives

Move over, Dubai Police! There has recently been a resurgence of city police with a fleet of luxury cars. We have received news from the Turkish Ministry of Interior that a fleet of seized luxury vehicles have been converted for police use.

In a video accompanied by dramatic music that Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya tweeted on

As “The Daily Telegraph” reports, a total of 23 cars have been confiscated from an international drug trafficker and handed over to Istanbul police as a result of his arrest.

The range extends from luxury cars such as a Bentley Continental GT and a Porsche Taycan to luxury SUVs such as a Range Rover Sport and Mercedes-Benz GLS, a whole range of Mercedes sedans and a Ferrari 458 – and a Golf R. The total value is around Estimated at 2.9 million francs (100 million Turkish liras).

According to the Telegraph, all the cars belong to drug trafficker Hakan Ayik, the Australian-Turkish leader of the Comancheros motorcycle gang, which is mainly active in Australia and Southeast Asia.

According to Wikipedia, Ayik went into hiding in Turkey a few years ago with his Dutch wife and children because he was considered “Australia’s Most Wanted Man” in Australia. His fortune was estimated at around 1 billion francs.

Ayik faces charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and manslaughter in several countries, including the United States. He and 36 of his accomplices were arrested in Istanbul on November 1. The FBI said Ayik also unknowingly helped arrest hundreds of suspected criminals using an FBI-operated phone app, according to Reuters.

Said about the seized cars the Turkish Minister of the Interior Yerlikaya about X: «As a result of the successful operations of our Istanbul Police Department against organized crime organizations, 23 vehicles were seized. Following a court order, these vehicles were handed over to our police.”

As several automotive websites are now reporting, even though this may represent a prestige gain for police officers, it is likely to become a nightmare for fleet mechanics, as maintaining such a heterogeneous and luxury-oriented fleet is highly inefficient and expensive. Furthermore, it would likely be more financially responsible (and significantly more lucrative) to sell the seized vehicles.