The Lucky-S incident occurred on January 7, 1993 when Turkish Navy

Turkish Navy

The Turkish Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces.- Ottoman fleet after Mudros :Following the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I, on November 3, 1918, the fleet commander of the Ottoman Navy, Liva Amiral Arif Pasha, ordered all flags to be...

 vessels, carrying members of the Turkish Narcotic Police, intercepted the MV Lucky-S, a Turkish ocean freighter in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

. The ship was suspected of being involved in smuggling illegal drugs into Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

.

It was the second Turkish anti-drug-smuggling operation on the high seas in three weeks, following the Kısmetim-1 incident

Kismetim-1 incident

The Kısmetim-1 incident occurred on December 15, 1992 when members of the Turkish Narcotic Police on Turkish Navy vessels supported by US officials intercepted the MV Kısmetim-1, a Turkish ocean freighter in Mediterranean international waters. The ship was suspected of being involved in smuggling...

. 11039.55 kg (24,338 lb) cannabis

Cannabis

Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...

 and 2568.01 kg (5,661.5 lb) morphine base

Morphine

Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...

 were captured on the ship, which was escorted to a Turkish port.

Trial

A total of 11 individuals arrested as a result of the operation were convicted of involvement in the drug trade.

Nejat Daş, who was also found to have organized drug trafficking by the MV Kısmetim-1 and was imprisoned, escaped from custody on November 8, 1994, as he was brought from Sinop Fortress Prison

Sinop Fortress Prison

Sinop Fortress Prison, was a state prison situated in the inside of the Sinop Fortress in Sinop, Turkey. As one of the oldest prisons of Turkey, it was established in 1887 within the inner fortress of the centuries-old fortification located on the northwestern part of Cape Sinop...

 to the 1st State Security Court in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

 for trial over his involvement in the Lucky-S incident. On March 16, 1995, he was sentenced in absentia to 24 years' imprisonment in a maximum-security prison.

It was asserted that the drug on the ship belonged mostly to the Turkish drug lord

Drug lord

A drug lord, drug baron or kingpin is the term used to describe a person who controls a sizable network of persons involved in the illegal drugs trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they might never be directly in possession of something illegal, but are insulated from...

 Halil Havar, son of the arms trafficker Mehmet Havar. He was tried and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment. He is serving his sentence in the maximum-security Uşak Prison.