In April 2021, a local news outlet in Sussex reported a brief story about a missing teenager. Dylan Weatherley, aged 17 at the time, was described as 5ft 6 inches tall, of medium build, and last seen wearing a navy hooded tracksuit with a yellow Nike logo, black Jordan One sneakers, and a blue puffer jacket. The article mentioned he had connections to Tottenham, Crawley, and Brighton.
Soon after, Dylan was found safe. At the same time, he was convicted at East Hampshire Magistrates Court for possessing Class A drugs and was given a referral order, avoiding jail time. He had been involved in county lines drug trafficking in affluent areas of Sussex and Hampshire, where cocaine and heroin were supplied by the Tottenham Turks.
By January 2022, the Argus website reported that Dylan had gone missing again, this time from his home in Chichester. Sussex Police expressed concern for his welfare, but once again, Dylan reappeared unharmed.
However, in October 2022, Dylan played a significant role in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of Koray Alpergin in North London. He was acting on orders from the Tottenham Turks, one of two powerful organised crime groups (OCGs) rooted in the Turkish and Kurdish communities of North London. Their main rivals are the Bombacilar, a gang from Hackney. These groups dominate the heroin trade in the UK and have increasingly expanded into cocaine and other drugs.
The Tottenham Turks and Bombacilar supply narcotics to county lines gangs, who distribute drugs across the country. The two gangs also serve as wholesalers, supplying heroin to other organised crime groups in major cities across England, Scotland, and Wales. Their operations are largely hidden but occasionally spill into the public eye through extreme violence, particularly between the two gangs.
In January 2023, Ibrahim Gumus, a 27-year-old man, was targeted in a ‘planned execution’ by 33-year-old Resit Murat, a member of the Tottenham Turks. Gumus survived the attack but sustained severe injuries, including a brain injury that left him partially blind and confined to a wheelchair. Dylan Weatherley, along with another gunman, was involved in the shooting.
In May 2024, Weatherley was convicted of conspiracy to murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 16 years. He was back at the Old Bailey recently, where he was also sentenced for his role in the events surrounding Koray Alpergin’s murder.
Weatherley’s primary role was to retrieve a tracker hidden under Koray’s car, which had been used to track his movements. The gang needed to remove it to prevent police from tracing it back to them.
Weatherley’s defence lawyer, Miranda Moore KC, argued that Dylan had been ‘disposable’ to the Tottenham Turks, merely a pawn in their operation. She suggested that he had been exploited and used by the gang since his childhood. Weatherley was convicted of manslaughter, kidnap, and false imprisonment and sentenced to five years in prison. Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC acknowledged that there was evidence of criminal exploitation, leading to the relatively lenient sentence.
Dylan Weatherley, like many young men from deprived areas in north London, was seen as expendable by the gang. On 13 October 2022, he was one of nine men involved in the brutal abduction of Koray and his girlfriend, Gozde Dalbudak, after they returned home from a night out. Koray was tortured and killed, while Gozde was tied up and forced to listen to her boyfriend’s agonizing screams.
The torture that Koray endured was horrific: he was punched, kicked, beaten with a baseball bat, and scalded with hot water, resulting in 94 injuries. Two men involved in the killing, Ali Yildirim and Cem Orman, fled the country and are believed to be in Turkey, where they remain fugitives.
It’s unclear why Koray was targeted, but it’s suspected he may have been involved in a drug deal with the Hackney Turks, angering their rivals in Tottenham. Whether Koray gave up valuable information to his captors, or was killed regardless, remains unknown. The investigation continues as the two fugitives are sought for extradition from Turkey.
In a 2023 trial, two men, Tejean Kennedy and Ali Kavak, were convicted of kidnap, false imprisonment, and manslaughter, while Steffan Gordon and Samuel Owusu-Opoku were sentenced for their roles in the abduction. The brutal events highlight the ongoing violence between rival criminal factions in North London.
