Selçuk Küçükkaya, a private investigator who was captured last year in an operation against "spies" working for Israel’s Mossad, collaborated with authorities and detailed his work for the intelligence agency. Küçükkaya explained how he met Mossad officials on 11 occasions and in 10 different cities in Europe and prepared intelligence reports for Mossad in exchange for cash.
Küçükkaya was among a group of Turkish citizens who were apprehended last May in Istanbul in an operation by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT). He and others, 17 suspects in total, including four who were remanded in custody, are accused of political and military espionage, a charge carrying a prison term of up to 15 years.
The suspect said he was introduced to Mossad agents through Serkan Özdemirci, a former Turkish military officer who is currently at large after he was charged earlier with links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which was behind a 2016 coup attempt in Türkiye.
"Serkan contacted me in August 2018 and told me a foreign insurance company was looking for a private investigator. I had several phone calls with him and he introduced me to someone called 'Jorge.' I talked to Jorge via Skype and offered my services. He first sent me the names of some restaurants and asked me to investigate their commercial activities. I was asked to take their photos, too. I compiled a report about the businesses and asked for 1,000 euros ($1.062,84) in return. He said he liked my report and wanted to meet me in person," Küçükkaya told investigators.
After "Jorge," Küçükkaya met "Alfonso" and the duo handed him another job. He was now running surveillance work on people of Iranian and Lebanese origin. Küçükkaya said he met Jorge in Rome in 2018 and was paid for his earlier work. His next job was collecting information about an electricity company. "Most of my work involved surveillance of foreign companies. For Turkish companies they wanted to investigate, they asked me to find their connections abroad. They wanted to find out who they worked with and who the owners of companies were," Küçükkaya told authorities.
His next meeting with his Mossad handlers was in Copenhagen, and there he underwent a polygraph test, according to his statements. "They had a device and plugged its cables into my body and carried out an interview. They asked me my profession, whether I worked for the government," he recounted.
In 2019, he met "Alfonso" in Belgium and Mossad agents installed a program on his computer for reading encrypted emails they sent. His next target was a currency exchange office in Istanbul’s Laleli district. Other jobs involved surveillance of the marketing manager of a Turkish company.
The Turkish private investigator also shared the contents of his email correspondence with authorities. Emails sent in July 2020 ask him to follow Palestinian national M. Almahmoud. Küçükkaya’s handlers gave him Almahmoud’s flight details from Beirut to Istanbul. They asked him to observe how much luggage he had and whether the man was accompanied by any security guards. They also asked him to check whether the guards were armed, whether he took a taxicab from the airport or was given a ride by a private car, and check his travel route in Istanbul. Handlers also suggested he use different vehicles, "at least three cars and one motorbike," to avoid detection and "better pursuit" of the target. The same email justifies the surveillance as "to be used to find weak spots on the target’s route to carry out an attack."
MIT also busted a Mossad cell in Türkiye in December 2022, as some seven people found spying on Palestinians in the country were arrested. The agency had informed that the suspects were helping Mossad launch online defamation campaigns and threats against Palestinians. MIT, in cooperation with Turkish police, has uncovered a string of espionage networks in recent years, including one working for Russia, and thwarted a plot by Iran to assassinate Israeli citizens in Türkiye. Operations have also led to the discovery of a story by Iranian intelligence operatives to kidnap Iranian dissidents who took shelter in Türkiye.