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Actress Hande Ercel has tested positive for opioid compounds as part of Türkiye's widening celebrity narcotics investigation, with forensic results also implicating several other high-profile figures detained in the latest wave of an operation that has shaken Istanbul's entertainment world since last autumn.
Toxicology analysis by the Forensic Medicine Institute found morphine, codeine, and the codeine metabolite codeine glucuronide in Ercel's urine sample. Her blood and hair specimens returned negative.
The mixed result places her among a growing list of public figures whose biological samples have yielded at least partial findings as prosecutors work through what has become one of the most expansive narcotics probes in Turkish media history.
The same round of forensic testing returned positive results for four other detainees. Singer Mustafa Ceceli tested positive for cocaine and its metabolites, benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine, in a hair sample, while his blood test came back negative.
Actor Ibrahim Celikkol's hair sample similarly showed cocaine and related metabolites. Music producer Deha Bilimlier tested positive for both codeine and cocaine compounds in hair analysis. DJ Ilkay Sencan returned positive for the cannabis metabolite THC-COOH in his blood and THC in his hair.
Hair testing is standard in forensic toxicology because it can detect substance use over a period of up to 90 days per centimeter of growth, a significantly longer window than urine or blood. Under Turkish law, a positive forensic result does not automatically constitute a criminal charge.
Prosecutors must establish the nature and degree of each suspect's involvement before determining whether to pursue personal use, facilitation, or trafficking classifications, each of which carries different penalties.
The investigation was launched in October 2025 by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, which described its mandate as protecting public morality, family order, and social structure. It has since unfolded in successive waves, steadily pulling in figures from television, music, sport, and business.
The first major arrests came in December 2025, when HaberTurk editor-in-chief Mehmet Akif Ersoy was detained and later dismissed from his post. Presenter Ela Rumeysa Cebeci was arrested the same month after her own drug test returned positive.
January 2026 saw 26 people referred to court, 19 of whom were formally arrested. February brought a further 19 detentions, including musicians Murat Dalkilic, Kaan Tangöze, and Kemal Dogulu, most of whom were subsequently released.
The late March wave drew the widest international attention, with detention warrants issued for Ercel, former Besiktas chairman Fikret Orman, former Galatasaray president Burak Elmas, businessmen Hakan Sabanci and Kerim Sabanci, and models Didem Soydan and Guzide Duran.
Ercel, who was abroad when the warrant was issued, returned to Türkiye voluntarily to give testimony and submit to testing. She had previously denied ever using narcotics or stimulants in her life. The April 7 wave then brought in Ceceli, Celikkol, Bilimlier, and Sencan, among others, in simultaneous raids conducted under orders from the Beykoz Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
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