March 3, 1961 - Kürşat Yılmaz
His career illustrates the intersection of organized crime and nationalist politics that characterized elements of Turkey's underworld in the 1990s — a mob boss whose connections to the ultranationalist Grey Wolves network gave him both reach and a degree of protection. Three separate prison escapes across four years suggest a man skilled at exploiting institutional vulnerabilities, as well as the limitations of cross-border law enforcement coordination before his eventual capture and extradition from Bulgaria.
From Wikipedia
Yakup Kürşat Yılmaz (born 3 March 1961) is a Turkish mob boss with links to the ultranationalist (Grey Wolves) Turkish mafia. He was arrested in Bulgaria in July 1998, having escaped from prison in Turkey three times (1994, February 1997 and February 1998). He had been sentenced to 19 years for arranging the 1995 murder of former Kuşadası Mayor Lütfi Suyolcu. He claimed that he had been told his sentence would be annulled if he killed businessman Halil Toprak, and that he had been given Hepatitis C in Bulgaria in order to prevent him speaking about his connections.
After he escaped to Bulgaria, he was detained in Varna in 1998 and subsequently extradited back to Turkey in April 1999.
He was released on October 30, 2021, after his lawyers requested a retrial in 2021.
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