(Google
translation, from Dutch)
Patrick Lefelon 18 February
2019 00h00
Part
De Roeck / rv The Antwerp mafia family Y. with the top
of the four clan heads Sahin Y. (52), Muhsin Y. (48), Dikran Y. (62) and Can Y.
(71). Dikrans son Marsin Y. (30), bottom left, worked as a planner at DP World
in the port. Van Cans son and headpiece Bayram Y. (38, bottom right) has no
image, but his brother Corc Y. (middle). The priest
of the community, Ardhil S., was also aware of the affairs of the
family.
De Krant She earned fortunes
with drug trafficking, but the Antwerp court has the Assyrian-Turkish Mafia
family Y. in the pliers. First there was the fishafraudezaak with family friend
and politician Melikan Kucam (N-VA), last week followed the arrest of 15 family
members. The clan has tentacles in all layers of society, and even their pastor
is part of the conspiracy. No better place to hide drug money than the
presbytery of the church.
The federal judicial police
opened the hunt for the Assyrian Y family in October 2017. It belongs to a
small Christian minority in eastern Turkey. At the time of the first Gulf War
(1990-1991) they fled their birth zone Beytussebap and received political
asylum in Belgium. The families found each other back in the Stuivenberg
district in Antwerp North, where in time a close, closed community of several
hundred family members arose.
Terminal 1700
The police appoint four heads
of household as ‘clan superiors’. It concerns Dikran Y. (62), Can Y. (71),
Muhsin Y. (48) and Sahin Y. (52). Together with their eldest sons they form the
hard core of the criminal organization, which deserves fortunes with the import
of cocaine. The younger sons, daughters and wives play a supporting role. They
lend their signature for mortgages or contracts for money laundering, play
bodyguard for a leader or help forging identity cards.
According to the
investigators, Bayram Y. (38), the eldest son of clan head Can, is the leader
of the Mafia family. He is actually called Yuhanis, but he prefers not to use
that Christian name in the Antwerp drug scene. Bayram organizes drug import via
the port of Antwerp. His most important pawn is Marsin Y. (30), the son of
clan-chief Dikran. He has been working as a planner at port company DP World
since 2008. Marsin gives containers that are sent to Antwerp from South America
a ‘safe place’ at DP World’s giant terminal.
‘Safe’ means that accomplices
of the Y family can take the bags of cocaine out of the containers without
being caught. For each container, the family pays 150,000 euros to Marsin Y.
Drug baron Bayram has almost a monopoly position at terminal 1700 of DP World.
Other drug gangs who want to enter there must deposit 300,000 to 400,000 euros
for the services of Marsin Y.
Marsin gives containers that
are sent to Antwerp from South America a ‘safe place’ at DP World’s giant
terminal
White washing machine
The drug trade is running and
so is the white washing machine. The four clan heads Muhsin, Can, Sahin and
Dikran are helping to invest the huge drug revenues. In Antwerp, houses are
bought, converted and resold, restaurants and cafes are taken over. In
Stuivenberg, where the family is at home, even a café with Y. opens as a name.
They are not star issues, but one investment stands out. For example, the Y
family appears to own Restaurant Tafel 19 at the exclusive Cleydael golf club
in Boom.
There is also a laundry room
and a garage purchased, there is invested in a party room in Kruibeke. The car
park gets an upgrade with purchases at Range Rover, Porsche and Mercedes. And
as befits a real drug boss, Bayram invests in a collection of luxury watches.
Pastor Ardhil S. of the Assyrian-Chaldean Church in the Onderwijsstraat is also not forgotten by the
deeply religious family. His loyal parishioners donate 130,000 euros to him and still have a car on top.
According to the police, the priest is up
to the details of the criminal story of the family. He
plays the role of mediator in quarrels between the clan heads. The priest also
keeps money and valuables of the Y’s in his presbytery.
Marc De Roeck Marsin Y.
was shot when he left his dog in Schoten.
Shot in the legs
Family members regularly
travel back to their native region in eastern Turkey. The clan heads then agree
how much cash money can be taken into account to deposit on their Turkish
bills. How much has been earned in the past is difficult to estimate. But
during the telephone taps the clan heads sometimes drop amounts. “When I
worked with Bayram, I once earned 1.9 million euros and 700,000 euros once.
Outside of all the rest “, says one
