How Australian drug kingpin Hakan Ayik gave AN0M to the criminal world and took down his pals

Australian drug kingpin Hakan Ayik has been unmasked as the “influencer” who led police straight into the world’s criminal underbelly.

Exclusive: One of the world’s most wanted fugitives – Australian drug kingpin Hakan Ayik – has been unmasked as the man who gave police access to the underworld’s deepest secrets.

Ayik has been the subject of a complex police deception operation, which led him into distributing the encrypted communications app AN0M among his criminal associates across the globe.

The 42-year-old associate of Comanchero bikies and Asian triads was identified almost three years ago by police as a key influencer – along with another Australian known as Mafia Man – who could be used to spread the device through his networks of criminal offsiders.

Special agents pushed the device to Ayik, then sat back and watched as he recommended – and even sold it – to his criminal associates.

None of them, including Ayik, who has been living in Turkey for the past decade, knew AN0M was being run by the FBI.

Former Comanchero Hakan ‘Little Hux’ Arif with Hakan Ayik on a Dubai beach.

Australian Federal Police, who provided the world with the capability to decrypt the app, were monitoring millions of messages being sent in real time.

An Australian Federal Police senior investigator responsible for offshore operations against Ayik said he was the “principal distributor of the AN0M handset.’’

“He was identified because of his standing within the underworld. He was a primary target as someone who was trusted and was going to be able to successfully distribute this platform,’’ the senior investigator said.

Ayik enjoyed the spoils of a party boy lifestyle.

“The success of Operation Ironside can largely be attributed to Hakan Ayik and his involvement. He’s done so at the expense of his associates.’’

Ayik, then known as Joseph Hakan Ayik, was a Sydney bikie associate and gym junkie who fled overseas in 2010 to avoid police arresting him in relation to a $230 million heroin importation.

An Australian national at the time, he was briefly detained in Cyprus as he attempted to cross from the Turkish side of the island to the Greek side, but later escaped and made it to Turkey.

Police consider Ayik to be one of the world’s most prolific drug-smuggling masterminds.

He is wanted in several jurisdictions, including Australia, where he is listed as one of NSW’s most wanted criminals, and has an Interpol red notice out for his arrest.

Ayik at a pharmaceutical factory in Maharashtra, India where he alleged to have purchased drug precursors.

Ayik giving the camera two thumbs up.

It was his unique connections to outlaw motorcycle gangs, Asian triads and South American drug cartels that made him such a high-profile target of police – and their best asset.

When Ayik recommended AN0M as a way to communicate out of sight of law enforcement, his associates didn’t hesitate in signing up. Such was their trust in the technology, they dropped their usual code and openly stated their business, including plots to kill, importing tonnes of drugs, and naming those who could help them with their criminal enterprises.

Now, thanks to the spy capability of AN0M, police have listened to, read, and captured the messages sent.

Ayik on his wedding day to Dutch-born Fleur Messelink, who runs a legitimate hair transplant clinic in Turkey.

The couple toasted their wedding with a mariachi band.

“He’s essentially leveraged his position of trust in the underworld to push this platform and that’s what generated its success. His associates would readily take his word for it,’’ the senior investigator said of Ayik.

“Traditionally when police would intercept a telephone line, 98 per cent of the conversation relates to day-to-day life with a very small percentage actually relating to criminal activity.

“With this platform 100 per cent of conversations were all business and in relation to criminal activity.’’

Ayik was in Hong Kong in 2010 when police began arresting suspects involved in a major heroin importation, in a large-scale investigation known as Operation Hoffman. He never returned to Australia and police believe he has since been running his criminal enterprise targeting Australia from offshore.

In 2019, he renounced his Australian citizenship and changed his name to Hakan Reis, which means “chief’’ or “chairman’’ in Turkish.

Ayik posing with one of his many flashy cars.

AFP Superintendent Jared Taggart said Ayik had not only distributed the devices among his associates, he’d profited from the sales.

“It’s like having The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) sponsoring your gym. This is a high-value criminal sponsoring a criminal communications system,’’ Supt Taggart said.

“It’s just pure revenue, it’s a bit like selling Amway for him. His good name goes behind it, he gets some … fees, there’s a cut from the selling of the handsets.

“But really the platform’s just an enabler for him, it’s a tool of his business. To do his real business (narcotics). It’s been invented particularly to enable this and he’s not the only person we see around the world who’s getting himself involved in shares or sponsoring these types of platforms but it is unique in that it’s attracted some of the best criminals in the world.

Ayik with his mate former Comanchero boss Duax “Dax” Ngakuru who is believed to be in close contact with Ayik overseas

Ngakuru on a yacht in Turkey.

“He has put these devices in the hands of criminals and enabled particularly the AFP and our very close partners to have the unique insight which he has enabled.’’

Asked if Ayik and those around him in Turkey would now be at risk of harm from aggrieved criminal associates caught up by law enforcements a result of the intelligence obtained by Operation Ironside, Supt Taggart said: “He’s a very serious criminal in his own right, lives on a day-to-day basis knowing that threats exist against him.’’

He said common sense would indicate that a “whole range of people’’ busted through Operation Ironside would now be aware Ayik had “put them in this type of situation, exposed them to this.’’

“If you look at Ayik and his involvement, essentially he’s almost like the prime sponsor of AN0M among the criminal cartels and the criminal milieu,’’ Supt Taggart said.

“These networks spread globally, and they all cross over and converge with each other. If you put it on a map it’s like a big network of spaghetti and they all cross over with each other.

“These device exist almost everywhere … around the world. They’re concentrated in some key nodes. But it’s like a family tree, you could probably trace almost all devices back to him.’’

A photograph of Ayik with his face blurred was uploaded to social media by his wife who was celebrating her birthday.

Supt Taggart said Ayik had been living large while on the run in Turkey, investing his proceeds of crime in hotel and resort developments.

He married Dutch woman Fleur Messelink, who until this week had publicly flaunted her lavish lifestyle on Instagram. Messelink runs a hair transplant business called The Private Hair Clinic using the name Fabienne Fleur Reis.

“He possibly has other expensive tastes that extend to motor vehicles, large private yachts and other luxuries like that.

“And in all likelihood some of his wealth has also gone to support the development of his wife’s businesses … hair replacement clinics, a couple of businesses that look very professional and well set up.’’

The senior investigator said Ayik would try to remain out of reach of authorities while all around him, people using the devices he recommended or sold to, would be going to jail.

“While the criminal landscape will collapse around him, he’s going to be hiding somewhere on the other side of the world,’’ he said.

“So he’s essentially sitting pretty while all of his ‘mates’ who he distributed these handsets to will be paying the price.’’

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