ANKARA (Dispatches) – Turkish intelligence services have dismantled a Mossad network that was gathering information on Palestinians living in the country for the Zionist regime, Turkish media reported.
Fifteen people were arrested earlier this month, following a year-long counterintelligence operation, and they are said to have been providing Mossad with details of local and foreign students. “After the information was shared with police, counterterrorism forces caught the 15 spies in a secret operation carried out on Oct. 7 in four provinces,” the Daily Sabah reported.
“The members of the espionage network were instructed to gather information on Palestinians attending Turkish universities and to find out what opportunities they are provided by the government and municipalities.”
They also identified university students who may be starting a career in the defense industry.
Agents were paid varying amounts depending on the importance of the information they were providing to Mossad, the paper explained. They travelled abroad, to Europe and Africa, to meet with Mossad agents and transfer information deemed vital for the spy network. They also used encryption software to transfer documents over the web.
According to Turkish intelligence, the agents met face to face with Zionist Mossad officials abroad, not in the occupied territories, in order not to be exposed.
During the meetings, information and documents deemed significant for the Zionist regime were relayed to field officers, known as “case officers” in intelligence terminology.
According to the Daily Sabah, Turkey also uncovered how the operatives were paid, which included cryptocurrency payments and money transfers from jewelry and currency exchange stores.
The Mossad-linked spy network is said to have used the Protonmail application, which allows the encryption of Microsoft Word files, to relay intelligence.
Another program taken advantage of was SafeUM, which generates fake phone numbers that cell members used to communicate with Mossad administrators undetected from applications like WhatsApp.
The members of the espionage network were presented in court and then transferred to the Maltepe prison in Istanbul.