Northern Cyprus says Comanchero Mark Buddle ‘laundered cash’

The small island nation that provided shelter for Sydney crime boss Mark Buddle has made extraordinary claims about what the Comanchero leader was up to while in their country.

Comanchero crime boss Mark Buddle allegedly continued to launder money and stashed guns in the small island nation that harboured him before its government turfed him out, it can be revealed.

More details are starting to emerge about how underworld kingpin Buddle fell foul of authorities in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus just months after it granted him a visa.

Buddle is facing deportation back to Australia where police expect to question him over a raft of crimes after the government in the disputed nation kicked him out.

They have now declared him a “forbidden immigrant” and say he continued running his crime empire by laundering money and possessing “illegal weapons” while setting up shop in Northern Cyprus.

Buddle’s next location when he is deported is still unclear.

The nation’s council of ministers made the claims in an official gazette published on Friday according to reports.

He is understood to have bought a series of properties, businesses and invested shares in other enterprises on the Mediterranean island.

Buddle’s Australian wife Mel Ter Wisscha remains in Turkey. She is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Buddle is believed to have befriended local politicians there and took a second wife in March.

The woman, known only as “Ozge” wed Buddle in a secret ceremony near his new home base in the idyllic enclave of Kyrenia where he has put his money into several businesses.

Buddle would have been able to gain citizenship in Northern Cyprus after a year of marriage to Ozge, but was nabbed at gunpoint a week ago

Now authorities in Northern Cyprus say he is a “wanted member of an organised criminal organisation” and subject to an Interpol blue notice.

Kyrenia, where Mark Buddle set up his life in Northern Cyprus.

The country is a disputed territory only recognised by Turkey. It is considered as a “Turkisk Republic”.

The bikie boss remains in a high security prison in Turkey’s capital of Ankara, where it is expected he will fight his deportation back to Australia.

Turkey has all but rubber stamped his deportation, but what remains unclear is which country he could end up in.

NSW and Australian Federal Police currently have no warrant for his arrest and Buddle could be deported to another country, if they agree to take him.

Reports suggesting Buddle was being held in a high-security prison in the Turkish capital means he is likely holed up in the infamous Sincan prison.

Political activists, terrorists and killers call the Sincan prison home. Picture: AFP

The jail is home to some of the worst of the worst, from organised crime gang members, drug lords and those serving out life sentences in the country.

The “F-type” prison is surrounded by barbed wire and guards with machine guns and each cell houses up to three people.

In April last year a human rights organisation and members of the Turkish opposition said conditions there were so inhumane that there was not enough food or water for prisoners and covid was rife.

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Originally published as Northern Cyprus says Comanchero Mark Buddle ‘laundered cash’