ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish police have detained seven people, including a private detective, suspected of selling information to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, state-owned Anadolu news agency said on Tuesday.
Anadolu cited security sources as saying the private detective, a former public servant, was suspected of gathering information on Middle Eastern companies and individuals in Turkey, placing tracking devices and engaging in surveillance.
The sources said the detentions were part of an operation carried out by Turkey’s national intelligence agency MIT and Istanbul counter-terror police.
Ankara made no official statement on the operation. Israel did not immediately comment on the Anadolu report.
The Turkish detective was trained by Mossad in the Serbian capital Belgrade and received payments in cryptocurrency that did not appear in official records, the sources said.
A Turkish court in January ordered the arrest of 15 people and the deportation of eight others suspected of having links to Mossad and targeting Palestinians living in Turkey. In February, Turkey detained seven suspected of selling information to Mossad.
Turkish and Israeli leaders have traded public barbs since Israel’s war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas began last October. Turkey has warned Israel of “serious consequences” if it tries to hunt down Hamas members living outside the Palestinian territories, including in Turkey.
(Reporting by Burcu Karakas; Editing by Daren Butler and Timothy Heritage)
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