Turkey busted a large network of operatives working for the Israeli Mossad in the country, the Turkish intelligence agency said on Monday, according to Daily Sabah.
The 56-person "ghost" cell, which consists of nine networks each handled by one Mossad agent all of which are based in "Tel Aviv", was tasked with spying on foreign nationals in Turkey.
In a joint operation by Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and the Anti-Terrorism Branch of the Istanbul Police Department, seven people who were arrested confessed to working for the Israeli spy agency.
According to MIT, the spies were collecting biographical intelligence on foreign nationals through cyber spying, tracking vehicles via GPS, and infiltrating Wi-Fi networks by hacking into the systems to gather private information and locations.
The agents were also assigned to follow individuals chosen by the Mossad and take pictures of personal meetings.
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Among the spy operatives were citizens from Middle Eastern countries, in addition to Turkish nationals.
The cell established fake sites in several languages, mainly Arabic, to track technical locations and IP addresses.
Cellphones registered to fake IDs in Germany, the UK, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Malaysia, and Indonesia were strictly used as means of communication between the Mossad and their agents.
According to the document, a Mossad spy with an alias of “Shirin Alayan” - which MIT was unable to verify their real identity - used a German line to contact a Palestinian named “Khaled Nijim” and request he creates online websites such as "najarland.com, almeshar.com, nasrin-news.com, and hresource.co.uk.”
The sites published articles extremely relevant to topics that interested their targets, which, upon clicking on the link, will deploy a virus to their systems and enable the hacking of their phones.
Cyber training and technical support were provided remotely to the unit in Istanbul by Priyanshi Patel Kulhari, the 24-year-old owner of spy software firm Cyberintelligence International Private Ltd based in "Tel Aviv", according to the MIT report.
Kulhari planned the cyber operations and decided what articles would be published and then conveyed orders to the spies in Turkey.
Read more: 44 Israeli Mossad spies arrested in Turkey: Reports
Tasks also included collecting information on specific personnel and marking targets for drone attacks. Syria's capital Damascus was also a target for the spying operations, Daily Sabah reported.
A network handler based in "Tel Aviv" who goes by the name “Abdulla Qassem" whose identity remains unknown, introduced himself as a Jordanian citizen living in Sweden and gave instructions to a man called "Zeyd Saadeddin" to photograph and analyze highly classified sites and buildings in the Qudsiyeh district of Damascus.
According to the MIT, dozens of operatives, including Turish citizens, were tasked by the Mossad to go on three-stop touristic trips to Serbia first, then Dubai, and finally Thailand’s capital Bangkok. All of these countries do not require a visa for Turkish nationals.
After arriving in Bangkok, agents would be escorted to a Mossad center to be taught how to conduct espionage operations.
One of the Turkish operatives named Okan Albayra was shown how to write reports, monitor targets, and dodge MIT and other intelligence agencies. He also received courses in documenting pictures, observing and analyzing intel information, and placing GPS-based tracking devices on vehicles.
Two Syrian nationals from Aleppo were also part of the spy mission, according to the Turkish newspaper. Mohammed Filli and Abdullah Fellaha had a mission to spy on the office of Hisham Younis Yahya Qafisheh, the Syrian CEO of a real estate investment company in Istanbul’s Kagithane district.
Read more: Turkey Arrests 15 for Links to Israeli Spy Agency
The two network members planned a mugging to snatch his phone and a burglary targeting his apartment in Turkey's Basaksehir to take his computers and other documents.
Filli and Fellaha also surveilled an organization and several Egyptian citizens in Istanbul, including a journalist, a doctor, and a staffer at a foreign exchange company.
Agents are subjected to trust tests, during which they are tasked with monitoring fake sites, dubbed white targets, such as mosques, churches, the Grand Bazaar, and the Egyptian Bazaar, in addition to Istanbul's top tourist attractions.
The spy needs to pass five levels of assessments before being promoted to professional agent and getting the required training by the Israeli Mossad, which takes place in an overseas post.