İzzet Eren, a senior leader of a London-based gang known as the Tottenham Turks, was shot and killed in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau on Wednesday, according to a special report by the Kısa Dalga news website.
Eren, 41, was sitting on a café terrace in the Riscani district of Chisinau when an assailant on an electric scooter fired multiple shots, hitting him in the head. The attacker escaped, and local police described the incident as a professional killing, noting that drive-by shootings are rare in Moldova.
Eren had a long criminal history, including a 21-year prison sentence for firearms offenses in the UK. He was transferred to a Turkish prison in 2019 but escaped a month later and had been a fugitive since then. In May 2022 Moldovan authorities arrested Eren, but he was reportedly free at the time of his death, awaiting extradition to the UK.
Eren’s criminal activities date back to the 1990s, when he was involved in drug-related assaults and murders. He was implicated in the 1994 killing of Mehmet Kaygısız, who was shot while playing backgammon at a café, a murder initially presented as part of a drug war. Additionally, Eren was linked to an assassination attempt on Nafiz Bostancı, both of which were reportedly carried out by Nurettin Güven, a member of a team led by Turkey’s former interior minister and police chief Mehmet Ağar, who was previously accused of involvement in alleged state-sponsored murders as well as drug trade. The Times had suggested in a 2016 report that the drug market wars among Turkish street gangs in the UK served to obscure state-supported attacks on Turkish dissidents.
The Times investigation revealed that Turkey’s spies used the cover of these drug wars to carry out extrajudicial killings in London, masking the violence with the drug trade. An enforcer for one of the gangs was found in a shallow grave in Epping Forest, shot twice in the head with a silencer, his killers never explaining their actions.
The Tottenham Turks and the Hackney Bombacilar, two notorious gangs, have been engaged in a violent turf war over control of the UK’s lucrative heroin trade. This bloody conflict has resulted in numerous deaths and violent incidents over the years. The Bombacilar, known as “the family,” is led by the Baybaşin brothers, with Hüseyin Baybaşin, a figure dubbed the “Pablo Escobar of Europe,” previously at the helm. Hüseyin, nicknamed “the Emperor,” played a significant role in controlling heroin exports from Afghanistan since the 1970s.
Eren’s cousin, Kemal Eren, is also a fugitive and has been implicated in various violent crimes, including a conspiracy to murder trial in London.
Police are investigating the circumstances of Eren’s presence in Moldova and how he managed to remain free despite the pending extradition. The shooting raises concerns about potential retaliatory violence in London, where gang-related shootings have injured innocent bystanders, including a 9-year-old girl in June.
The Moldovan Interior Ministry has released security camera footage of the suspected assailant, who was wearing a protective helmet, and continues to investigate the incident.
Eren’s death is the latest in a series of violent incidents linked to the Tottenham Turks, including the 2013 murder of Zafer Eren and the 2022 killing of Koray Alpergin in Tottenham.