$36 Million in "Copper" Paving Stones Sent to China from Istanbul

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 15 March 2021)

Gang's amazing "secret sauce" turns paving stones to copper!

The Swiss firm Mercuria Energy made an arrangement with a firm in 

Istanbul owned by Hasan Kayacıköse and named Bietsan Bakır AŞ

to send $36 million worth of copper ingots to China.  However, 

paving stones painted a copper-color were shipped to China instead 

of the real copper.  (!) Istanbul police took 13 members of the gang into 

custody and jailed 11 of them.   

On 20 June 2020, the Istanbul company made a deal with the Swiss

company to send 10 tons of pure copper to its factory in China.  The

"copper" was then shipped from Istanbul's Ambarlı port to Lianyungang

in China but Chinese port officials discovered that the "copper ingots" 

were, in fact, paving stones painted copper-color.  

Based on the related complaints, Istanbul police determined that there 

were a number of firms involved, which were actually part of an 

organized crime group.  Yesterday in the early morning hours, police 

made simultaneous raids on four firms and 15 addresses in Istanbul and 

Tekirdağ, taking 13 people into custody.  

At the head of the hoodwinking plot were brothers Sinan, Dursun and 

Soner Çokyiğit, the owners of Uncular Metal.  They arranged for the

transport of the "copper" to China via eight separate shipments from

Ambarlı port.  Orhan Mollaoğlu, one of those arrested, told police that

he had been asked to quote a price for his paving stones and had no

idea what they would be used for. 

                  Just waiting to become copper ingots!