TLDR Turkish prosecutors ordered 121 suspects jailed pending trial in an illegal betting case. Police used an AI system called AVCI, meaning “hunter,” to decode slang and emojis on Telegram. AVCI flagged 306,000 potentially incriminating messages across 47 groups. A 21-year-old software developer was named as a suspected ringleader. The same tool analyzed 600,000 messages in a May probe that led to 108 arrests.
Turkish prosecutors have ordered 121 suspects jailed pending trial in an illegal betting case. Police built the case with help from an artificial intelligence system that reads coded messages on Telegram. The tool helped investigators link suspected betting groups to one another.
The system is called AVCI, which means “hunter” in Turkish. Istanbul police developed it to study criminal activity on messaging platforms. Authorities say it played a key role in finding the groups behind this case.
Police carried out raids across 39 provinces on Tuesday, Nov. 3. They were looking for 194 suspects. Officers detained 169 people during the operation.
Prosecutors shared the results on Saturday, Nov. 7. Of those detained, 121 were jailed pending trial. Another 45 were released under judicial supervision, and three were freed without restrictions.
AI hunts betting rings
Turkish police used an AI system called AVCI to analyze coded slang and emoji across Telegram groups. Raids hit 39 provinces, and 121 suspects were ordered jailed pending trial. The same tool was used in a May probe that led to 108 arrests. pic.twitter.com/DlHppe3Cyn
— NextDeposits.com (@NextDeposits) November 8, 2026
Reading Emojis as Evidence
AVCI is an open source intelligence analysis system. It uses natural language processing to understand slang, coded words, and emoji combinations. These are the kinds of signals that standard keyword searches can miss.
Suspected drug dealers and illegal betting operators use