Turkey Comanchero underworld arrests: Why our most wanted gangsters will stay out of reach

Masood Zakaria, Hakan Ayik and 18 others with Comanchero links are behind bars in Turkey but Australian police are resigned to the fact our two most wanted may never face a court in this country.

The state’s most wanted man will likely never return to NSW, with police coming to terms Masood Zakaria will remain overseas and out of their reach despite being wanted over his role in Sydney’s underworld war.

Zakaria, 28, has been behind bars in Turkey since January, after fleeing Australia in 2022 while wanted on an arrest warrant for conspiracy to murder.

But both police and underworld sources with knowledge of his situation said they now believe is no chance the Alameddine crime clan heavyweight will ever return.

“There’s been no movement and there won’t be any movement,” an underworld source said.

“The Turkish government aren’t going to extradite him, they will deal with the offences over there and then he will be free again.

“He has his family over there with him, he is not planning on coming back and they won’t make him.”

Masood Zakaria, left, remains behind bars in Turkey and is unlikely to ever return to Australia, while Australia’s most wanted man Hakan Ayik was refused bail on his first appearance in a Turkish court, just days after his dramatic arrest. Pictures: Supplied

NSW Police put the warrant out for Zakaria’s arrest in December 2021 over his alleged involvement in, among other things, organising an attempt on the life of rival gangster Ibrahem Hamze at North Sydney.

Zakaria vanished from Sydney in the days before police knocked on his door to carry out the warrant and place him under arrest.

Several of his associates including rapper Ali “Ay Huncho” Younes, Joseph Vokai and John-Ray Baysarri, were also sought before handing themselves in to police.

Zakaria, however, remained on the run for months before leaving Australian shores on a fishing boat out of Western Australia, through Asia and then to Turkey.

“He may be never coming back now,” a police source said of the Zakaria situation.

It comes as Australia’s most wanted man Hakan Ayik was refused bail on his first appearance in a Turkish court, just days after his dramatic arrest.

Ayik was one of 42 people arrested over their alleged links to the Comanchero bikie gang last Thursday, which Turkish police allege the Australian drug lord is the leader of.

In total Ayik – better known as Big Hux – and 17 other men were refused bail, including his chief lieutenant Hakan “Little Hux” Arif.

Maximilian Rivkin, Baris Tukel, Erkan Dogan, Jimmy Avaijan, Meli Lagi, Sibel Arif and Hasan Topal, were also among those refused bail.

TURKISH COMANCHERO ARRESTS

REFUSED BAIL:

Hakan AYIK

Duax NGAKURU

Maximilian RIVKIN

Barış TÜKEL

Hakan ARIF

Erkan DOĞAN

Jimmy AVAIJAN

Meli LAGI

Sibel ARİF

Hasan TOPAL

Hakan KARA

Bahatdin FERHAN

Mustafa SELMAN

Hasan SAVAŞ

Imam GUL

Necmi ŞAKI

Yunus EMRE BORHAN

Mesut KÖROĞLU

GRANTED BAIL:

Abdullah MOUHSEN TAHSEEN

Alissar GHATTAS

Aykut EMUL

Cüneyt COŞYAN

Devran Kaan NAZ

Hasan Fehmi KAHVECİ

Kağan KESKİN

Melis TAHSEEN

Muhammet ERİŞ

Nurullah DEMİRCİ

Ömer FERHAN

Rahmi DAĞDANAŞAR

Rana AVAİJAN

Romi AVAİJAN

Selçuk MANAS

Sercan AKDEMİR

Sezgin CALBAZ

Sinan BİLGİLİ

Uğur İNAL

Vahap ŞAHİNTÜRK

Vesna ZDRNJA

Engin İNCİ

Rafet CANSEVER