ISTANBUL, July 2, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Police have seized 825 kilogrammes of heroin and arrested 30 people in a string of raids largely in southern Turkey, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Wednesday.

Straddling Asia and Europe, Turkey lies on several major smuggling routes and is the main entry point for heroin on the European market.

"In operations across seven provinces, centred in (the southern city of) Adana.. we seized 825 kilogrammes (1,818 pounds) of heroin and arrested 30 suspected drug traffickers," he wrote on X.

In a simultaneous operation, police raided 38 different addresses in Adana, Hakkari, Hatay, Istanbul, Van, Diyarbakir, and Mersin, seizing unlicensed weapons and "a large quantity" of digital material, he said.

Heroin continues to be the most commonly used illicit opioid within the European Union and "increasingly relies on maritime routes and in particular the use of global container traffic and ferries" departing from Turkey, Europol's 2024 analysis of the EU drug market said.

The report said Turkish criminal networks continue to dominate the wholesale trafficking of heroin to the European market.