Former Comanchero boss Mark Buddle’s gangster paradise revealed
The former Comanchero bikie boss has been trying to start a new life in a seaside playground which is a known gangster’s paradise and haven for the rich and famous.
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It has been dubbed the Riviera of Cyprus, a luxurious and expensive seaside playground for the rich, famous and those seeking privacy.
Girne, on the coast of Northern Cyprus, is a seaside enclave which had become a haven for the rich and famous. The picturesque coastlines are dotted with private villas, fancy hotels, high-end restaurants and more than 20 casinos hosting crowd-drawing famous singers from the region.
But now the city with a population of just over 22,000 has also become known as a gangster’s paradise attracting mobsters and bikies and has come under the spotlight for a series of illegal activities according to locals.
It is here Mark Buddle fled in the wake of the ANOM sting which erupted last year apparently trying to keep a low profile and starts new life.
The former Comanchero bikie boss entered Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus on July 7 last year, alone, on a tourist visa and obviously already had extensive contacts on the island.
Buddle quickly partnered with a businessman involved in car dealing who is also rumoured to have mob and mafia connections. Sources said the businessman used his standing to vouch for Buddle, allowing him to extend his visa by three months at a time.
As the 44-year-old dubbed Australia’s richest bikie tried to cement his new life, settling into the community without his long term partner Mel Ter Wisscha and their children by his side. It is believed Ms Ter Wisscha has not been to Northern Cyprus and has remained in Turkey.
It wasn’t long before Buddle met and married a popular local woman known only as Ozge, in the hope of gaining citizenship after 12 months. Sources say he invested in shares, and in businesses and also in a string of real estate opportunities.
But his activities were not low profile enough and local journalists who discovered he was living among them started investigating. When Buddle hit the front page of a local newspaper in March this year, journalists received threatening messages advising to stop pursuing the matter unless they want to be “scraped from the ground with a razor”, the Bakirkoy Gazetesi reported in March.
There has been speculation that Buddle has not only been under the protection of a group of business people in the north of Cyprus, but official authorities as well.
Nonetheless, his best intentions to blend into the background and invest in legitimate businesses went awry with the company he kept.
Law enforcement sources revealed that Buddle was continuing to meet with alleged criminals and he was finally arrested when he went out to meet “with a gang member of his who came from Germany to meet with him”.
A top-secret mission was hatched to snatch him and deport him as fast as possible. It involved local police, Interpol agents, and the National Turkish Coast Guard which was brought in case Buddle tried to escape the island by water.
It was a sophisticated, well-planned and discreet operation with armed police scooping up Buddle without anyone outside the police raid seeing anything.
Buddle’s shocked entourage initially thought they had been raided by the FBI or local police masquerading as the FBI in a shake down. But it soon became apparent the raid was very real.
Northern Cyprus Interior Minister Ziya Öztürkler signed off on the arrest warrant on Friday, July 8, and Buddle was nabbed the next day.
He was kept in detention by local police on the island and then bundled aboard a Pegasus airline PC1884 flight on Sunday night at 8.54pm from Ercan International airport to Ankara flanked by two police officers. There was no special treatment on board the one-class, low-cost flight which took just over an hour.
After Buddle was transferred to an unnamed high-security jail in Ankara, the General Directorate of Police revealed Buddle had been removed because of the “threat to public peace and security”.
“In line with the report of the TRNC security forces, upon the instruction of our Minister of Interior, Mr. Ziya Öztürkler, a decision to deport Mark Douglas Buddle, who was found to be inconvenient for the peace and security of our people,” a police statement said.
Buddle appeared briefly in an Ankara court last week and it is believed his deportation has already been rubber stamped.
Foreigners issued with a deportation order must be removed within 15 and 30 days subject to appeals.
It is understood there was no international arrest warrant for Buddle from Australian authorities and no extradition request so Buddle could be removed at any time to Australia, a transit country or a third country.
That is despite Buddle featuring for the past five years on a list of a list of 15 or so people classified by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission as major organised crime threats to the nation.
NSW Police also want to question him in relation to an armed robbery where security guard Gary Alibon was shot dead in 2010 but have admitted they don’t have enough evidence to charge him with any wrongdoing.
Buddle has also been the subject of several other police investigations including a deadly conflict with gangster Mejid Hamzy, 44, who was gunned down outside his Western Sydney home in October 2020. Again, no charges have been laid against Buddle in respect of that incident.
While Buddle’s future remains in the hands of Turkish authorities, his partner Ms Ter Wisscham has revealed she is struggling with his arrest while she soaks up the sun in a luxury Turkish resort in the popular seaside city of Bodrum.
Her post on social media which was quickly deleted earlier this week said “Trying to stay positive, better days are on their way. As much as I want to hide away, i (sic) have to fake that smile. I have to show up for my kids.”
“He would not want it any different, his kids are his world. I may be posting like I am having the time of my life but I am not. This is social media.”
Ms Ter Wisscham has spent the past four weeks gallivanting around Turkey’s glorious coast as her husband bounced from country to country fearing for his safety.
Ms Ter Wisscha has spent weeks in a luxury slice of Turkey’s coastline, taking trips to high-end designer stores and enjoying the coral blue seas of the Mediterranean.
She also enjoyed the sights of Istanbul’s grand mosque and cocktails at the luxury D Maris Bay hotel.
On some of the sun-filled days this summer, Ms Ter Wisscha and a friend dashed around the beautiful blue waters of Bodrum on a boat. Other items on the bucket list for what appears to be a lavish girls’ trip was the historic city’s grand bazaar and a rooftop bar.
When they weren’t shopping in stores like Prada and Fendi, drinks were on the menu with some of the most enviable views in the world.
In one video posted on social media, it shows the beautiful beach she now calls home, captioned with “never coming home”.
There is no suggestion Ms Ter Wisscha is involved in any wrongdoing.
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