Intell dep of Turkish police observing ISIS recruitment official was reassigned.

Intell dep of Turkish police observing ISIS recruitment official was reassigned in the aftermath of the Dec. 17, 2013 corruption and bribery investigations. (TZ).

Turkish police detected a top official of ISIL who recruited dozens of members to the extremist group roughly one year ago, Today's Zaman has learned from police sources.

Police sources told Today's Zaman that the intelligence department of the National Police Department received an anonymous letter in March of last year claiming that a man identified as M.İ. was working with his team to recruit members from Ankara's Hacıbayram neighborhood.

According to the letter, the man recruited as many as 100 members to the terrorist ISIL in 2013. The man transferred the new ISIL members first to the southern cities of Hatay, Adana and Gaziantep, and then the members were later sent to Syria.

The intelligence department, after having received the letter, assigned a team of police officers to investigate the accuracy of the claims. As a result of the investigation, the police team found that M.İ. was actively recruiting members to ISIL from the Hacıbayram, Mamak, Keçiören and Sincan districts of Ankara.

In addition, the team discovered that M.İ. mostly targeted the Alevi population of Ankara to recruit new members to ISIL. Besides the Alevi population, M.İ. recruited those who were unemployed or drug users or who had family problems. M.İ. allegedly promised to pay a monthly wage of $500 and $1,000 if they agreed to join ISIL.

However, the team was unable to carry on its intelligence activities against ISIL in Turkey after most of its members were reassigned or removed from the police force in the aftermath of the Dec. 17, 2013 corruption and bribery investigations.

A high-level police official told Today's Zaman that the Turkish police have been unable to work against terrorist groups, including ISIL, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) and al-Qaeda, since the graft investigations.

“Terrorist groups are taking advantage of the inability of the police to fight them. They are recruiting more members every day,” the official stated. Read the full story here.