Istanbul Still Center for Smuggling, Secrets

Feb. 5 -- The remote hills and dusty back roads of Turkey have long been a playground for smugglers and spies, and if you know the right people, and come with cash, there is nothing you can't find.

"You can buy anything — nukes, drugs, arms, scientists, viruses," said Mustafa Kibaroglu, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. "Anything goes."

The city of Istanbul has historically been a key market for contraband, secrets and lies. The reason that Turkey remains a key crossroads for spies and smugglers? Location.

Turkey borders eight countries, allowing smuggled goods and secret agents to move clandestinely across borders. Cigarettes and liquor used to be the primary contraband, but the stakes today are much higher.

"There was smuggling of Marlboro cigarettes and J&B whiskeys," Kibaroglu said. "Well, who would care about it?"

But now, there is the possibility nuclear weapons could be changing hands.

"It's deadly weapons. It can cause damage, so it can terrify or terrorize people," Kibaroglu said. "The biggest danger is the free flow of very sensitive material. That can really cause catastrophe."

So while the merchandise may change, the object of the game in Turkey remains the same: to sell anything, anytime, to anyone.

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Spies and the Snakepit

Istanbul has long been the exotic backdrop for international intrigue, both real and imagined. It was a scene-setter in Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, and it's been featured in the James Bond 007 thrillers.

But the history of espionage in this city goes far beyond moviemaking. At one time as many as 17 countries had secret agents here, battling it out in the complex game of international espionage.

"Istanbul was a center of all sorts of conspiracies and plots," said Altemur Kilic, a journalist in Istanbul who was a reporter there during World War II.

Enemy spies mingled side-by-side at a bar called the Snakepit. He remembers one agent in particular.