Polis arabada uyuşturucu buldu.

The sentence breaks down like this:

• polis = subject
• arabada = location phrase, in the car
• uyuşturucu = direct object
• buldu = verb, found

A very common Turkish sentence pattern is subject + other information + object + verb, with the verb at the end.

Because Turkish adds the locative case ending to show location.

• araba = car
• arabada = in the car, inside the car, sometimes at the car depending on context

The locative ending has four common forms: -da, -de, -ta, -te.

Here it is -da because:

• the last vowel in araba is a back vowel, so we use a-type harmony
• the word ends in a vowel, so there is no change to -ta

So arabada is the normal form.

Because it is being used as a bare direct object.

In Turkish, a direct object often has no accusative ending when it is non-specific or indefinite. So:

• uyuşturucu buldu = found drugs / found narcotics / found some drugs

This does not necessarily mean exactly one drug. It usually just presents the object as not specifically identified beforehand.

Uyuşturucuyu has the accusative ending -(y)ı / -(y)i / -(y)u / -(y)ü, which usually makes the object specific.

So:

• uyuşturucu buldu = found drugs / found some narcotics
• uyuşturucuyu buldu = found the drug / the drugs / the narcotics that were already known or expected

The y is just a buffer consonant because uyuşturucu ends in a vowel.

In a sentence like this, uyuşturucu often works like a mass or collective noun, so English may translate it as drugs or narcotics.

That is normal. Turkish does not always mark number in the same way English does.

So even though the form looks singular, the meaning can be something like:

• drugs
• narcotics
• illegal substances

If you really wanted to emphasize separate multiple items, you could say uyuşturucular, but that is less natural here.

Polis is a little tricky for English speakers.

It can mean:

• a police officer
• the police officer
• sometimes the police as a collective idea, depending on context

Turkish does not have a/an/the, so context does a lot of the work.

If you wanted a clearly plural countable form, you could use polisler = police officers.

Because Turkish usually does not use articles the way English does.

So:

• polis can mean a police officer or the police officer
• araba can mean a car or the car
• context tells you which one is intended

Turkish can use bir for a/an when needed, but it is not required in every sentence.

Also, Turkish often shows specificity through grammar, especially with the accusative on direct objects.

Buldu is the past tense of bulmak, meaning to find.

More specifically, it uses the Turkish -DI past tense:

• bul-mak = to find
• bul-du = found

The ending appears here as -du because of vowel harmony. Textbooks often call this the definite past or witnessed past, but in everyday learning it is enough to understand it as a normal completed past action.

Turkish word order is flexible, but the verb usually stays near the end.

So this sentence is natural, but other orders are possible:

• Polis arabada uyuşturucu buldu
• Arabada polis uyuşturucu buldu
• Polis uyuşturucuyu arabada buldu

These versions do not all have exactly the same focus.

For example:

• putting arabada earlier can highlight the location
• using uyuşturucuyu instead of uyuşturucu makes the object specific

So the sentence as given is normal, but word order in Turkish often affects emphasis rather than basic meaning.