63 police arrested in FETÖ ByLock operation

Detention warrants were issued for 100 Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) police, including 37 police chiefs, on Saturday under the scope of an operation conducted by Turkey’s Ankara Directorate for Combating Organized Crime.

The FETÖ suspects used the terrorist organization's encrypted messaging app, ByLock.

Based in Turkey’s capital, the operation is being held across 19 provinces and 63 suspects have already been taken into custody.

ByLock is said to have been used by members of the FETÖ, which the government says was behind the July 15 defeated coup that martyred 241 people and wounded nearly 2,200 others.

The app is believed to have been cracked by Turkish security agencies before the coup, prompting the plotters to switch to the WhatsApp messaging service, but not before tens of thousands of FETÖ suspects had been identified.

FETÖ terrorists are led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gülen, who orchestrated Turkey's July 15 coup attempt and is the mastermind behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

Since the failed coup, operations have been ongoing in the military, police and judiciary as well as in state institutions across the country to arrest suspects with alleged links to FETÖ.