Türkiye’s interior minister revealed on Thursday that the country had successfully disrupted the international criminal organization Comanchero, apprehending Hakan Ayık, a prominent fugitive wanted in Australia for drug smuggling, along with 36 other suspects in Istanbul.
The apprehensions specifically targeted the armed motorcycle gang, which was allegedly engaged in drug trafficking, manslaughter, global looting and money laundering, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
U.S. and New Zealand authorities have also pursued the organization.
Dubbed the "Facebook gangster" in Australia, Ayık has been on the most wanted list in New South Wales state for more than a decade for the "supply of large commercial quantities of drugs."
The FBI has said he unwittingly helped authorities monitor and arrest hundreds of suspected criminals in recent years using an FBI-run phone app.
Yerlikaya said Türkiye "will not pardon organized crime gangs, drug dealers," adding, "Regardless of their scale, we will dismantle organized crime groups and bring them to justice."
The captured gang leader Ayık, who is also known as "Reis," and Duax Hohepa Ngakuru have led the crime ring since at least last year, Yerlikaya said.
Like Ayık, Ngakuru has been wanted in New Zealand.
Reuters was not immediately able to contact a spokesperson for Ayık at an Istanbul hotel where, in 2021, staff had confirmed he was the owner.
The Turkish government published a video of the arrests showing armed special agents and narcotics officers banging on doors of apartments and houses, arresting various men and seizing handguns and stacks of foreign bank notes.
The video includes an image of a man it says is Ayık, who is seen kneeling, handcuffed and shirtless, with a large tattoo on his shoulder that matches his earlier photos on social media.
An app, a network
In 2010, Australian police arrested Ayık’s associates in relation to a drug shipment. When Ayık did not return from a trip to Hong Kong, Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest.
A U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation indictment unsealed in 2021 says that Ayık was one of three administrators and four influencers identified in establishing and popularizing the An0m app among criminal networks.
Users thought the app was encrypted, but it was actually controlled by the FBI, who could monitor their conversations.
The Australian Federal Police told Reuters it acknowledges Türkiye’s police for "undertaking one of the most significant operations targeting alleged transnational serious organized criminals, some of whom are accused of illicit drug trafficking to Australia and around the world."
Born to Turkish migrants, Ayık was raised in Sydney, but it was not until about 2005 that he came onto the radar of Australian police, local media have reported.
His wealth and flashy lifestyle were flaunted on Facebook, bringing him to the attention of authorities and the public and earning him his nickname.
In 2021, two staffers at the Kings Cross Hotel in Istanbul’s upscale financial district of Levent said that Ayık was the owner and appeared there often. The 13-room hotel has a spa and Japanese restaurant and its business card included the slogan: "Sleep your way to the top."
Providing further details about the group, Yerlikaya mentioned that the so-called leader of the global organized crime organization, Mick Hawi, was killed in 2018.
Under the leadership of Mark Douglas Buddle, the criminal organization continued to engage in various criminal activities globally, including drug trafficking, murder, armed robbery, arson and kidnapping.
Buddle was apprehended in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in 2022 and extradited to Australia.
Ayık and Ngakuru took over the leadership and continued their criminal activities.