{"id":202079,"date":"2022-02-20T11:23:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-20T19:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=202079"},"modified":"2022-02-20T17:12:26","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T01:12:26","slug":"halil-falyali-new-evidence-in-murder-of-turkish-cypriot-casino-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/halil-falyali-new-evidence-in-murder-of-turkish-cypriot-casino-owner\/","title":{"rendered":"Halil Falyal\u0131: New Evidence in Murder of Turkish Cypriot Casino Owner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police in Northern Cyprus say two hitmen who allegedly killed Turkish Cypriot casino<\/a> kingpin Halil Falyal\u0131<\/a> reached the Mediterranean island by boat from the mainland Turkish city of Alanya.<\/p>\n

\"Halil
Halil Falyal\u0131 died in a hail of bullets on February 8. While several people have been arrested, a motive for the killing remains unclear, although one exiled Turkish mob boss has his theories. (Image: Turkish Haberler)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, notorious gangster Mustafa S\u00f6ylemez arrived on a scheduled commercial flight that landed at Ercan Airport near Lefko\u015fa, Northern Cyprus\u2019 de facto capital.<\/p>\n

Police believe S\u00f6ylemez, a fugitive since 2004, participated in the killing.<\/p>\n

After fleeing the February 8 attack, S\u00f6ylemez allegedly threw his coat and shoes into a streambed about three miles from the crime scene, police said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Falyal\u0131 died in a hail of bullets after his motorcade was ambushed by men wielding Kalashnikovs as it entered the village of \u00c7atalk\u00f6y.<\/p>\n

The killing was witnessed by Falyal\u0131\u2019s wife and children, who were traveling in a different vehicle and were unhurt. His driver, Murat Demirta\u015f, was also killed in the attack.<\/p>\n

Who Was Halil Falyal\u0131?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Falyal\u0131 owned the five-star Les Ambassadeurs Hotel & Casino in Cyprus and was a major player in the local online gambling industry. That located to Cyprus after Turkey passed laws to prohibit it on the mainland.<\/p>\n

In 2015, the US government said Falyal\u0131\u00a0was a major player in a narcotic trafficking operation that flooded the UK with heroin. A year later, the DOJ charged him with laundering the proceeds of drug sales on American soil.<\/p>\n

Falyal\u0131 never faced justice because the US and the UK do not have an extradition treaty with Northern Cyprus. They do not recognize it as an independent state.<\/p>\n

\n

S\u00f6ylemez was arrested in Istanbul on February 9. He is the reputed leader of a criminal organization known as the S\u00f6ylemez Brothers, or the \u201cUniform Gang.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The latter moniker comes from the group\u2019s links to the armed forces, and allegedly, Turkey\u2019s so-called Deep State.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, the S\u00f6ylemez Brothers fought a brutal war for the control of arms and drug trafficking in eastern Turkey via a campaign of kidnap and murder. According to court documents, authorities disrupted a plot that involved the gang attacking a rival politician from a helicopter using flamethrowers.<\/p>\n

S\u00f6ylemez and his brother, Faysal, fled to northern Iraq in 2004, and then to Azerbaijan after Turkish authorities issued a warrant for their arrest.<\/p>\n

The motive for the killing of Falyal\u0131 is unclear.<\/p>\n

The gaming tycoon was briefly imprisoned in Cyprus last October for detaining and beating a worker at his casino, allegedly for taking money from the safe without permission.<\/p>\n

Sedat Peker and the Turkish \u2018Deep State\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Turkish gang boss Sedat Peker claimed prior to Falyal\u0131\u2019s death that the casino owner bargained his way out of prison. That’s because he held \u201cobscene tapes\u201d that could incriminate Cypriot politicians.<\/p>\n

Peker is currently in exile in the United Arab Emirates, where he has been making YouTube videos detailing the engagement of government figures in illegal \u201cDeep State\u201d activities.<\/p>\n

Some of Peker\u2019s claims have been given credence by The Washington Post.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The Deep State in Turkey is alleged to be a conspiratorial coalition drawn from the intelligence services, the military elite, the judiciary, and the mafia. It reputedly works covertly to pursue a secularist, ultranationalist, antidemocratic and anti-Kurdish political agenda that it believes is in the best interest of the state. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The term has gained popularity in recent years among US conspiracy theorists. But it was coined in Turkey, where there is credible evidence for its existence. Covert political societies have existed in the country since the Ottoman era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police in Northern Cyprus say two hitmen who allegedly killed Turkish Cypriot casino kingpin Halil Falyal\u0131 reached the Mediterranean island by boat from the mainland Turkish city of Alanya. Meanwhile, notorious gangster Mustafa S\u00f6ylemez arrived on a scheduled commercial flight that landed at Ercan Airport near Lefko\u015fa, Northern Cyprus\u2019 de facto capital. Police believe S\u00f6ylemez, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":202080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHalil Falyal\u0131: New Evidence in Murder of Turkish Cypriot Casino Owner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Halil Falyal\u0131 was gunned down in Turkish Cyprus. 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