ANKARA, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced Monday that 170 suspects were detained in a sweeping crackdown on cybercrime and fraud across 18 provinces over the past five days.
The suspects were involved in a variety of cybercrime and fraudulent schemes, including possessing sexually explicit images of children, defrauding citizens through fake bungalow rentals, unauthorized account use, investment scams, and fraudulent furniture sales.
Others were accused of running illegal betting operations or facilitating financial transactions linked to these networks, as well as illegally accessing mobile banking accounts to obtain illicit profits, Yerlikaya said on social media platform X.
Of those suspects held across the country, 55 were formally arrested and 34 placed under judicial control, he added.
The remaining cases are ongoing, according to the Turkish minister.
Five companies, seven residences, and ten vehicles, estimated to have been proceeds from crime, valued at approximately 341 million Turkish lira (8.24 million U.S. dollars), were seized, he said.
Yerlikaya noted that investigations have been launched against the suspects detained in operations in Adana, Antalya, Diyarbakir, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Istanbul, Izmir and other provinces. ■