türkçe links to original Turkish article
(Milliyet Newspaper, 1 March 2021)
Think Negative!
When Istanbul police caught a passenger trying to leave Turkey with a
fake negative COVID-19 test, questioning turned the police in the
direction of a gang headed by internet phenomenon Georgian Nugzar
Merkuladze. (!) Gang member Muhammed T., a Syrian, would put
on a white doctor's gown, get a swipe sample from a customer on the
street or in a travel agency and then throw the sample in the trash
without sending it to a lab or a hospital.
The gang set up a website for the fake negative tests, complete with
a bar-code system, that allowed customers who entered their personal
information on a special screen to receive the negative test result.
The gang even added the emblem of the Turkish Health Ministry to
make the result look more official and authentic. Also, the names of
active doctors were written in the seal and signature blocks of the result.
In the ensuing police raids at 8 addresses, digital material, cellphones,
test kits and thousands of false COVID-19 reports and foreigners'
passport photocopies were seized. Gang leader Merkuladze, "doctor"
Muhammed T. and 10 others were taken into custody, nine of them
being released on judicial supervision.
For their website, the gang gave special passwords to gang members
working at tourism agencies and the fake negative COVID-19 test
results were sold for $150-$300 to both foreign and Turkish
customers leaving Turkey by air or by land.
The gang's operation was centered at a travel agency in the Molla
Gürani neighborhood of Aksaray in Fatih district, Istanbul, and there
were complicit travel agencies in nine other locations. As of July 2020,
thousands of individuals used these fake COVID-19 test results to
travel to Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Europe and Arab countries.
The doctors whose names the gang used on the results have filed
complaints against the gang, as well.
Now there's room in the cooler for beer. Party!
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