News - World: Turkish authorities say they have uncovered and disrupted a vast "ghost" Mossad spy network centered in Istanbul, following months of surveillance.

The substantial efforts by Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) exposed 56 operatives allegedly spying on non-Turkish citizens in Turkey in the service of the Israeli spy agency Mossad, Turkey's Daily Sabah newspaper reported on Monday.

MIT and the Anti-Terrorism Branch of the Istanbul Police Department also managed to arrest seven of the suspected spies during a collaborative operation, the report further said, adding that the detainees, according to the agency’s counterintelligence unit, had confessed to working for Mossad in their testimonies.

"The seven suspects are among the 56 operatives linked to a total of nine networks, which are each overseen by nine Mossad agents based in Tel Aviv and have the ability to operate on an international scale," the reported cited MIT as saying.

The vast network consisted of citizens from various West Asian countries, the agency said.

The findings by MIT also revealed that the Mossad agents would gather information about foreigners through various surveillance methods, vehicle movements using GPS, and hacking into password-protected networks using Wi-Fi and location tracking devices.

Source: Press TV