Turkey seizes huge drug shipment

Seizure followed an investigation in Istanbul and three provinces

Turkish police say they have made the world's largest seizure of heroin-grade morphine, worth about $29m.

Police said they had seized an estimated 6,750 kilograms (14,850 pounds) of morphine late on Sunday following an investigation that began on 24 March in Istanbul and three provinces to the east of the city.

Twelve men and women have been arrested.

Turkey has become known as a thoroughfare for smuggling people and drugs.

The BBC's Jonny Dymond says that if this seizure is the world's largest, as Turkish police have said, it will seal that reputation.

The morphine itself was found in a village in the province of Sakarya, which borders the Black Sea and is about 100 kilometres from Istanbul.

Heading west

The morphine is almost double the total amount seized in Turkey over the past five years, the police said.

Details about the operation and the arrests were not immediately available.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the men and women in custody are Turkish, and the morphine was almost certainly travelling from east to west, from central Asia to the lucrative drug markets of Europe.

On Saturday, security forces seized 160 kilograms of heroin and detained four suspected traffickers in south-eastern Turkey.