Mehmet Ali Yaprak (1949 in Nizip[1] – 4 January 2004) was a Turkish businessman and drug trafficker, who was involved in the Susurluk scandal.
However, he also led a feared gang that smuggled Captagon via Syria and Saudi Arabia, according to the Susurluk scandal MİT report.
[7] The kidnapping, motivated by the desire to know where the Captagon was coming from and cut Topal out of the loop, was directed by police in Ankara.
Yaprak paid 10 million DM in ransom, however Çatlı and his fellow kidnappers received only a small portion of this.
[6] Yaprak was convicted in 1997 for involvement in the assassination of Gaziantep Bar lawyer Burhan Veli Torun, and released due to an amnesty law (Turkish: Şartlı Salıverilme Yasası).