 | Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yasin Ekrem Serim, 37, was a partner with Halil Falyali. In May 2011 a US court charged Falyalı with money laundering and drug trafficking. Falyalı was found guilty in 2016 and was wanted by the US. Serim and his brother held 10% in a company with Falyalı holding 90%. Their father, Maksut Serim, is a former top aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and leads state-lender Halkbank. Falyalı came to wide attention in May 2021 when Sedat Peker exposed Turkish government involvement in drug trafficking. | 
Recently Recep Tayyip Erdogan 'approved' Finland's application into NATO after claiming for months it supported terrorists. |
Yasin Ekrem Serim had no experience before being appointed to Deputy Foreign Minister by Erdogan in October 2022.
Police found two Kalashnikov rifles, a 9mm pistol, magazines and ammunition in a stream close to the crime scene. | Twelve people, six in Turkey and six in the north of Cyprus, were arrested in connection with the murder of Halil Falyali. Turkish mob boss Mustafa Söylemez was arrested in Istanbul. The Söylemez Gang is an organized crime group in Turkey headed by Faysal Söylemez and his five brothers. It is involved in drug smuggling, kidnapping, and murder.  |
 | One was arrested and a manhunt is underway to find the killers of Turkish Cypriot casino owner and mob boss, Halil Falyali.
Falyali, 64, is a former bodyguard turned casino boss who acculmulated massive wealth through gaming and drug trafficking. | 
Falyali came under the spotlight after exiled Turkish mobster Sedat Peker named him as a key figure in a cocaine ring. |
 | Falyali was gunned down in a drive-by shooting outside his home in Agios Epiktitos, Kyrenia in Cyprus. Falyali's vehicle was sprayed with bullets from automatic weapons. Falyali succumbed later at a local hospital after being hit 18 times.
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His driver died at the scene. |
 | Peker implicated Falyali in the seventh of a series of videos he released on social media naming high-ranking government officials in Turkey, as well as Turkish Cypriot politicians and businessmen. Former Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci accused Falyali of blackmailing politicians and money laundering. Akinci said the government in Ankara protected Falyali. In 2016 the DEA convicted Falyalı and his brother Hüsnü for laundering funds obtained from an international drug trafficking scheme. The Falyalı family was involved in running “a large-scale drug and weapons trafficking organization” and the brothers were “known to be associated with the Turkish mafia”. |
