Dec 9, 2014

Turkey’s car rental companies are the latest victims of the Syria war. More than 30 companies operating in various cities have complained to police that their luxury 4x4 vehicles have been smuggled to Syria. The culprit at the center of the scam was caught by company owners and handed over to police, but he managed to escape. Police are now looking for 473 vehicles, 124 of them considered to be high-value 4x4s.

Hasan Said Yuksekbas is accused of smuggling the vehicles to Syria, either to sell them to regime opponents or to the Islamic State (IS). Bulent Ulasoglu, owner of a company in Istanbul, said: “Despite the dangers, I went to Syria to find my 10 vehicles. But the man who took our vehicles was set free despite so many complaints.”

A gang is said to have swindled scores of car rental companies and sold the cars and pickup trucks in Syria. Yuksekbas is said to have conned about 40 car rental companies in Istanbul, Izmir, Mersin, Elazig, Ankara, Kahramanmaras, Adana, Hatay and Antalya out of 500 vehicles in one year. Yuksekbas introduced himself as a businessman in the transport business at Iskendurun and Mersin ports, and told the rental companies that he was looking for 4x4 vehicles. Some companies, lured by the potential revenue, not only rented out their vehicles but borrowed from banks at high interest to buy new vehicles. Yuksekbas did not default on payments for the first few months and gained the confidence of car rental companies who then went out and bought even more vehicles for him to rent.

Yuksekbas, boasting that his business was doing great, asked for luxury-class vehicles like the Toyota HiLux, Volkswagen Amarok, Mitsubishi L200, Isuzu D-Max and Nissan Navara. The companies, which were charging Yuksekbas monthly fees from 2,000 to 3,000 Turkish lira [$882 to $1,323], did not hesitate to take out new loans to buy more vehicles. But after July, Yuksekbas started to miss payments. It was discovered that the GPS instruments in vehicles were removed and installed in other vehicles. Company owners, upon hearing that the gang led by Yuksekbas had taken the vehicles to Syria and sold them to IS or opposition groups for $5,000 to $7,000, lodged complaints to prosecutors in several cities.

Yuksekbas was caught by the victims in Adana on Dec. 1 and handed over to police. Yuksekbas, who had a fake ID and an unlicensed gun, managed to escape while being taken for fingerprinting by the police. Three policemen were penalized, and Adana police chief Cengiz Zeybek set up a special team to take on the case. Yuksekbas was caught again in Hatay on Dec. 4, but the prosecutor let him go free, angering the victims. Yuksekbas is reported to have rejected the charges, saying, “I am an Alevi. I won’t sell cars to IS. I had a car rental office and they stole my cars also.”