Police have charged a man with helping an alleged drug smuggler – who is believed to be a key player in the Dural caravan fake terror conspiracy – to flee the country.
Sayit Erhan Akca, 35, is wanted for alleged drug smuggling but is believed to have fled the country in 2023, and has been living in Asia and Turkey ever since.
Sayit “Aron” Akca on holidays in Queensland before his disappearance. Credit: Facebook
Akca is believed to be a key player in the alleged fake terror conspiracy, including the discovery of explosives in a Dural caravan and a spate of antisemitic attacks, which police now believe were designed to either distract police or influence a prosecution.
Sources close to the investigation but not authorised to speak publicly said a man arrested by Australian Federal Police in Queensland on Thursday helped Akca escape.
Police allege the man, along with an accomplice, crewed a boat that collected Akca from another vessel at sea before the trio sailed from Thursday Island on September 21, 2023 to Phuket, arriving on November 2.
Akca was facing charges of dealing with proceeds of crime over $100,000 at the time of his escape and was later charged with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs. He was charged as part of the AFP’s Operation Ironside – a three-year covert operation targeting users of encrypted communications device AN0M.
Police have charged a Bundaberg man over the alleged plot to smuggle Akca out of Australia.Credit: AFP
The man who allegedly helped him flee Australia, 57-year-old Sean Eamon Ryan from Bargara in Bundaberg, faced court on Friday charged with people-smuggling and intentionally providing material to support resources to a member of a criminal organisation.
He was granted bail and will next appear in court on May 16.
At a search conducted at a Bundaberg home, police allege they found messages on electronic devices between the man and “offshore criminal syndicate facilitators” – the pair discussing arrangements for Akca to flee the country.
“Alleged criminals facing serious charges and potential penalties of life imprisonment will often do almost anything to avoid facing court,” AFP Commander Naomi Binstead said.
“But anyone who helps someone leave the country risks being imprisoned for significant periods themselves.”
Fourteen people have been charged with a total of 49 offences for a slew of antisemitic attacks across Sydney that police now believe were part of the organised crime hoax.
The discovery of Power Gel mining explosives inside a caravan parked on a Dural road, along with a note bearing addresses of Jewish targets for a potential attack, was labelled by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton as “potentially the biggest terrorist attack in our country’s history”.
But investigators believed the opposite – that the potential terror attack was in fact a hoax designed for police to find.
“The caravan was never going to cause a mass casualty event but instead was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit,” AFP Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett said earlier this month.
NSW Police believe at least 14 other antisemitic incidents investigated by Strike Force Pearl, including the firebombing of Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin’s former home, were in fact orchestrated by organised crime figures.
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