Why exiled bikie boss Mark ­Buddle wants Turkey to deport him to Lebanon

Bikie boss Mark Buddle has gone cold on Turkey. Here’s why he’s trying to convince authorities to deport him – not to Australia, but to nearby Lebanon.

Exiled bikie boss Mark ­Buddle, currently sitting in a Turkish prison, is believed to be trying to convince Turkish authorities to deport him to nearby Lebanon and not ­Australia.

The bikie boss has powerful friends and connections in Lebanon, who are known to be helping him and have enormous political sway in parts of the country.

“There are high-ranking Comanchero bikie members, who have family in Lebanon, and he has stayed there before after leaving Dubai,” one underworld source said.

“Everyone believes that’s where he will end up unless the Australian government has something up their sleeve that no one knows about,” the source said.

Buddle had set up home in North Cyprus and paid bribes to get a residency permit so he could live under the radar, but it all came crashing down on July 9 when he was arrested by local police with the help of ­Interpol.

Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle pictured overseas with wife Mel Ter Wisscha.

“Seven police came through the window and took me to the police station,” he told a local newspaper, the first time anyone has heard him speak publicly in over a decade.

He was told the arrest was a deportation issue. The raid was so secret, well executed and forceful that his associates thought it was an FBI bust.

When Buddle was grabbed and shoved on to a plane to Turkey, the Australian Federal Police and other law enforcement agencies had no idea of his detainment.

The self-proclaimed leader of the Comanchero bikie gang has been living overseas since about 2016. Despite being listed as an APOT (Australian Prioritised Organised Target) by federal authorities, no extradition warrant for his arrest exists, which makes it difficult for them to bring him back.

Originally published as Why exiled bikie boss Mark ­Buddle wants Turkey to deport him to Lebanon