25 December 2003 – Issue 147
25 December 2003 – Issue 147
A TURKISH informer who helped catch some of the UK’s biggest drugs dealers has claimed he has been left to the mercy of gangs by police, according to a special report in The Guardian.
Selim Düzgün (39) provided officers at the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) with vital information on heroin importers.
The report on Monday said that Mr Düzgün, under the codename Norman Nice, risked his life to bring to justice three drugs dealers who were caught with almost 10kg of heroin in an undercover police operation, code-named ‘Ferdinand’, in March 2002 in north London.
The London Turkish Gazette reported earlier this month that the three men had been jailed for a total of 40 years.
Mehmet Ebçin (34) from Kidbrooke in South London and Abdurrahman Gençer (52) from Edmonton were both jailed for 14 years while Murat Öztürk (32) for Doncaster in South Yorkshire was sentenced to 12 years.
According to the Guardian, Mr Düzgün felt that his handlers bungled the situation, leading to his arrest and the exposure of his role.
Mr Düzgün was acquitted at a separate trial, during which his handlers openly acknowledged that he was the most valuable informant they had ever had.
But he told the Guardian that since he was released last month, witness protection officers have refused to provide him with a new identity or relocate his family abroad.
The report said that Mr Düzgün alleged the police appeared to ‘cut him adrift’ with no regard for his safety, while covering up for one of their officers who failed to return his phone call on the day of the drugs bust.
Mr Düzgün said to the Guardian: ‘I will never know the moment they come for me, but they will come, of that I am sure. It is in our culture, blood for blood, they will not let what I did go unavenged.
‘There is nowhere in England I could be safe. In every town there is a kebab shop, a Turkish corner shop. The other day, I went to a barber and Ebçin’s cousin came in.
Republished on 25 December 2013 as part of Londra Gazete’s “Ten years ago this week” feature.
