# Istanbul Heroin Factories: 1920s Drug Capital

*History & War · Eleanor Hartwell · 2026-10-12*

## TL;DR

In the late 1920s, Istanbul became a major heroin production center, with factories in districts such as Eyüp and Kuzguncuk reportedly backed by Japanese capital. The trade flooded the city with cheap morphine and heroin, fueled a public health crisis, and ended only after Turkey moved to shut heroin manufacturing down in the early 1930s.

## Key facts

- By the late 1920s, Istanbul reportedly hosted multiple heroin and morphine production facilities, including one said to be operating in the Eyüp district by 1929.
- A company known as the Oriental Products Company, said to have Japanese financial backing, has been linked to Istanbul's heroin trade during this period.
- The Mecidiye Barracks near Taksim, a landmark Ottoman military building, has been cited in popular accounts as one of the sites tied to drug production in the city.
- Morphine addiction reportedly became so widespread in Istanbul during the early 1930s that the drug was sold openly in pharmacies, contributing to a public health crisis.
- Under international pressure, Turkey moved to ban heroin production in the early 1930s, effectively ending Istanbul's role as a major drug production hub.

## When Istanbul Became a Heroin Capital

Picture Istanbul in the late 1920s. The call to prayer drifts over the Bosphorus, ferries churn between the continents, and steamships unload cargo at the docks. Now picture something the postcards never showed: heroin factories said to run from Taksim all the way out to Eyüp, pumping morphine and heroin into an international smuggling network that reached far beyond Turkey's borders.

That is the surprising heart of this story. A city the world knew for its mosques, its bazaars and its layered history had, for a brief stretch of years, become one of the centers of the global heroin trade.

Popular accounts place the first of these operations at the Oriental Products Company, said to have been set up in 1926 inside the Mecidiye Barracks in Taksim with Japanese capital behind it. The same accounts hold that it began by turning out roughly 20 to 25 kilograms of morphine and heroin a month, then scaled up sharply by 1930. Those specific figures and that founding date cannot be confirmed, so treat them as one version of the story rather than settled record.

What is solid is the background. Japanese capitalists had already flooded China with heroin and earned enormous profits doing it. They arrived in Istanbul with expertise, capital and connections, and they knew exactly what they were building.

They were not alone for long. As the story goes, a Jewish family founded the Ecza-yi Tıbbiye ve Kimyeviye (ETKİM) factory in Eyüp in 1929, processing opium into morphine and heroin. In that same year, a third plant, Türk Ecza-yı Tıbbiye ve Kimyeviye Şirketi (TETKAŞ), reportedly opened in Kuzguncuk. The exact founding dates, ownership and output of both are difficult to verify, but their names survive in period accounts.

These Istanbul heroin factories did not operate in a vacuum. They fed both a local market and international smuggling routes, and the city's social fabric began to fray under the weight of it.

The marks ran deep. This was a short era, but it left a lasting imprint on Turkey's economy and society, one that outlasted the factories themselves.

## The First Factory: Japanese Capital in Taksim

The story of Istanbul heroin factories begins, in the most widely repeated account, in 1926, inside the Mecidiye Barracks in Taksim, where a firm called the Oriental Products Company was reportedly set up with Japanese money. That specific founding date and that specific address cannot be confirmed, so treat them as the version that has come down to us rather than as settled record. What is not in doubt is the broader backdrop: Japan had already spent years flooding China with heroin, particularly across Manchuria and the occupied territories, and Japanese interests had pulled enormous profits out of that trade. By the time anyone set up shop in Taksim, the playbook was well worn.

The numbers attached to the Taksim operation are striking, though they too come with caveats. As the story goes, the factory opened at a modest 20 to 25 kilograms of morphine and heroin a month, then scaled up hard, reaching roughly 200 kilograms a month by 1930. Picture the shift: a barracks built for soldiers, now housing vats and presses, the air thick with chemical dust, output climbing year over year. Whether the figures are exact or rounded in the retelling, the direction is clear. This was not a cottage operation. It was industrial.

And it was not the only one for long. Within a few years the city had drawn other players, a Jewish family's venture in Eyüp and a third outfit across the water in Kuzguncuk, each adding its own capacity to a market that was already spilling past the city's edges. The Japanese had shown what was possible. Others followed the scent.

## A Second Factory in Eyüp and a Third in Kuzguncuk

The Taksim operation was not alone for long. According to the original account, 1929 brought a second plant to Eyüp, on the Golden Horn, set up by a Jewish family under the name Ecza-yi Tıbbiye ve Kimyeviye, or ETKİM. The reported output was a leap in scale, hundreds of kilograms of morphine and heroin rolling out every month, processed from raw opium. The same year, reportedly, a third firm opened across the water in Kuzguncuk on the Asian shore, Türk Ecza-yı Tıbbiye ve Kimyeviye Şirketi, known as TETKAŞ. Three Istanbul heroin factories now worked the same city in a single decade.

And 1929 was the worst possible year to be visible. The world economy was collapsing, and Turkey found itself squeezed by what period accounts describe as a drug boycott, an international pushback against a country that had turned itself into an open market for narcotics. Whether that boycott was formally organized remains unconfirmed, but the pressure was real enough.

Inside the city, the toll showed up on the street. Heroin addiction climbed fast through the late 1920s, and Istanbul's neighborhoods filled with users. Stories from the Taksim plant describe workers absorbing heroin dust on the factory floor until they were addicted themselves, their bodies giving out over time. The supply reportedly reached everywhere: brothels, luxury bars, gambling houses, rented rooms. A drug that had been a business became a public health crisis, and the social fabric of the city started to fray.

## Addiction, Collapse, and a City Flooded with Heroin

The men who worked inside the Oriental Products plant in Taksim did not have to look for heroin. It found them on the factory floor. Popular retellings say the workers inhaled the fine dust drifting off the production line day after day, grew dependent on it, and eventually broke down physically. The same stories hold that the drug poured out of these plants and into nearly every corner of the city, from brothels and luxury bars to rendezvous houses and casinos. Those specific claims come from popular retellings rather than documented record, so treat the details with care. What is not in doubt is the scale of the damage: from the 1930s, the epidemic shook Istanbul's social fabric to its core.

Picture the geography of it. A factory in Taksim, another in Eyüp, a third in Kuzguncuk, all processing opium into morphine and heroin through the late 1920s. The output did not sit in warehouses. It moved through the same streets where ordinary Istanbul residents lived, worked, and drank their tea. Addiction spread fastest among the people closest to the source, the laborers who handled the stuff with their bare hands and lungs.

The city's nightlife absorbed the rest. The claim that heroin could be bought in brothels, luxury bars, rendezvous houses, and casinos is consistent with the broader picture of narcotics distribution in interwar Istanbul, though the tidy list itself is unverified. Even so, the direction is clear: a drug produced in a handful of buildings became a presence across an entire metropolis within a few years.

By the early 1930s the pressure had become impossible to ignore. Turkey moved under heavy international and League of Nations pressure, particularly from Western governments, to restrict and then shut down heroin production. The precise year the Istanbul plants closed is reported as 1933, and while the early 1930s is the right window, that exact date cannot be confirmed.

What followed is well established. Turkey stopped being a production center and became, instead, a transit point for smuggling. The factories went quiet. The demand they had helped create did not.

## The Early-1930s Ban and Turkey's New Role

By the early 1930s, the Istanbul heroin factories had become a diplomatic liability. Turkey moved under significant international and League of Nations pressure, with Western governments especially alarmed that the country had turned into something close to a free zone for opium and heroin production. The decision to ban the trade was, in large part, a response to that outside pressure.

The shutdown itself is usually dated to 1933, when the heroin factories in Istanbul are said to have been closed. That year is the one most accounts reach for, though the precise date sits inside a slightly fuzzy early-1930s window rather than on a single documented day. What matters is the direction of travel: the plants that had made the city a byword for the trade were finished.

Then came the shift that reshaped Turkey's place on the map. After the closure, the country stopped being a production center altogether. Instead it became a transit point, a route through which smuggled narcotics moved rather than a place where they were made. The factories went quiet. The pipelines did not.

Production ended. Transit began. That single turn, forced from outside, redrew Turkey's role in the trade for decades.


## Frequently asked questions

**What was the Oriental Products Company in Istanbul?**

According to the popular account, Oriental Products Company was a heroin and morphine factory reportedly founded in 1926 with Japanese capital inside the Mecidiye Barracks in Taksim. Its exact founding details, location, and output cannot be confirmed, so treat the story as a widely repeated version rather than documented record.

**How did Istanbul become a heroin production center in the 1920s?**

As the story goes, Japanese capital and local entrepreneurs turned late-1920s Istanbul into a narcotics hub, with factories stretching from Taksim to Eyüp. The specifics of who financed what and when remain unverified, though Japanese interests had already profited heavily from flooding China with heroin before turning attention westward.

**Why did Turkey ban heroin production in the 1930s?**

Turkey moved against heroin production in the early 1930s under heavy international pressure, especially from Western countries and the League of Nations, which objected to the country operating as a free zone for opium and heroin. That pressure, combined with growing domestic reaction, pushed the government to act.

**Who was behind the heroin factories in Istanbul?**

Reported accounts name Japanese capitalists, a Jewish family, and Turkish entrepreneurs as the forces behind the factories. Ownership details are unverified, so the picture stays murky: multiple investors, multiple nationalities, and no single confirmed hand on the whole operation.

**Was Istanbul really the heroin capital of the 1920s?**

The phrase appears in popular retellings, but it cannot be confirmed as any formal title. What is documented is that Turkey's heroin trade drew serious international attention in the late 1920s, enough that foreign governments pressured Ankara to shut the industry down.

**How did heroin addiction affect Istanbul in the 1930s?**

Descriptions of the era point to widespread addiction and deep social disruption, with heroin reportedly available from brothels to luxury bars and casinos. Specific impacts are unverified, so the scale of the damage remains described rather than measured.

**What happened to the heroin factories after they closed?**

Once the factories shut down, Turkey stopped being a production center and shifted into a transit point for smuggling. That trajectory, from manufacturing hub to trafficking corridor, is the widely accepted outcome of the early-1930s crackdown.

**Did Japanese investors start the first heroin factory in Istanbul?**

Japanese capital is reported in connection with the earliest Istanbul factory, and Japan's earlier heroin operations in China are a matter of record. The exact founding details of that first plant, however, remain unconfirmed, so the claim stays plausible rather than proven. Editorial note: Details about the exact scope, ownership, and operational history of Istanbul's 1920s and 1930s drug factories remain partly unconfirmed in the historical record and are presented here with appropriate hedging.

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