 organized crime group, concluding one of Turkey’s largest-ever criminal trials involving hundreds of defendants.){kind=link}
An İstanbul court has handed down multiple life sentences to senior figures in the so-called Daltonlar (Daltons) organized crime group, concluding one of Turkey’s largest-ever criminal trials involving hundreds of defendants, the DHA news agency reported.
The İstanbul 16th High Criminal Court on Tuesday announced its verdict in the case, which involved 362 defendants accused of crimes ranging from murder and armed attacks to extortion and drug trafficking.
Bahadır Akdağ and Zafer Boyun, two senior members of the group, were each sentenced to 12 life terms, including six aggravated life sentences, for multiple counts of premeditated murder.
Akdağ also received an additional 701 years in prison on other charges, while Zafer Boyun was sentenced to a further 681 years.
The court issued prison sentences ranging from one year to nearly 700 years for 258 other defendants.
The reading of the verdict sparked chaos in the courtroom at the Marmara Prison complex in Silivri, where several defendants disrupted proceedings and attacked gendarmes, prompting the judges to leave the hall.
Security forces used pepper spray to restore order, with significant damage to public property later reported.
Cases against 34 suspects, including alleged group leader Barış Boyun and several senior figures such as Beratcan Gökdemir, were separated after they could not be apprehended. Prosecutors said Boyun and others remain at large or are being held abroad.
The court acquitted 62 defendants and dropped charges against two who had died. Thirty-seven detained defendants were released under judicial supervision, while the court ordered the continued detention of 96 others and issued new arrest warrants for 15 defendants.
Rap artists among defendants
Several well-known rap musicians were also tried in the case. Doğan Tarda, known as “Heijan,” and Muhammet Nedim Doğan, known as “Muti,” were acquitted of all charges.
Two other artists, Şahan Terzioğlu, known as “CAC,” and Samet Işık, known as “BIG,” were sentenced to four years and seven months each for membership in a criminal organization and incitement to commit crimes.
The İstanbul-centered investigation alleged that the Daltonlar group was involved in numerous armed attacks, murders, threats, extortion and drug trafficking operations. Prosecutors said the organization operated along a Turkey–Europe axis and used social media and music videos to promote itself and recruit young people.
The Daltonlar gang most recently came under the spotlight with the murder of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) member Serdar Öktem, a lawyer by profession, in October. He died in the hospital after being shot by four people police identified as members of the Daltonlar gang while waiting in his car in traffic. Nine people, including two under the age of 18, were arrested in connection with the incident. Öktem was among those on trial over the 2022 assassination of former Grey Wolves leader Sinan Ateş.
Öktem had allegedly become a target of the Daltonlar gang due to his close ties to a rival gang.
The Daltonlar group takes its name from cartoon bandits of Lucky Luke inspired by a real-life American gang and has built its brand on social media, where videos of young men on motorcycles firing guns into the air have attracted attention and anger in Turkey.
The network associated with Barış Boyun is often described by Turkish and European officials as a new-generation Turkish mafia structure with cells in several European countries. Italian police arrested Boyun in May 2024 in a joint operation with Turkish authorities that targeted his group in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Turkey.
Italian and Turkish documents say the Boyun network faces accusations of drug trafficking, murder, attempted murders and plans for attacks in Europe and Turkey.
Boyun remains in custody in Italy while courts there examine Turkish extradition requests, which include organized crime charges.
The Daltonlar case became one of the largest organized crime trials in Turkey after hundreds of case files were merged over the course of the investigation.