Baybaşin family

The Baybaşin family (/bˈeɪbɑːʃˌɪn/ bay-bah-SHEEN; Kurmanji Kurdish: Malbata Baybaşîn, pronounced [malbˈɑːtɑː bɑːjbɑːʃin] ^ⓘ) is a Kurdish crime syndicate. They were once referred to as "the most dangerous men in Europe" and are particularly noted for having strong family ties.

Around 1960, Said Baybaşin formed a family union in his hometown of Lice and stepped into criminal activities. In the late 1960s, he died and was replaced by his younger brother Mehmet Şerif Baybaşin. Since the profit of selling opium roots was low, he started to produce heroin in his isolated laboratories and grew his criminal organisation to the extent that it spread to Istanbul.

In the early 1990s, Hüseyin Baybaşin definitively took over the management and business of the family and actively managed it until the 2000s. During this time, he was mentioned in various scandals such as the Kısmetim-1 incident. When a red notice was issued against him in Turkey, he left the country in 1994, never to return. In 1997, his name was announced to the press by the British Home Office and a warrant was issued for his arrest. On 27 March 1998, he was captured in an operation in a mansion in Lieshout, Netherlands.

After the imprisonment of his elder brother Hüseyin Baybaşin, Abdullah Baybaşin temporarily ran the criminal activities until his arrest in 2006. In 2011, Abdullah Baybaşin was freed from HM Prison Belmarsh after a surprise acquittal. In 2012, he returned to Turkey, where he had not set foot for years, and said that this return is permanent. In present-day, Abdullah Baybaşin is the active head of the Baybaşin family.