Inside Istanbul’s Kings Cross Hotel, hide-out of wanted NSW criminals

See inside Istanbul’s ‘Kings Cross Hotel’ where some of NSW’s most wanted men including Mick Hawi’s former right-hand man hide out in Turkey.

The Kings Cross Hotel in Istanbul is where some of NSW’s most wanted men – often referred to as the Turkish Mafia – hang out.

And now it seems former Sydney Comanchero Hakan Ayik, credited with being the brains and money-maker for the bikie gang before fleeing Australia in 2010, is happy to have the hotel as a reminder of his old stomping ground.

Sources have told The Telegraph that Ayik, known as Big Hux, now lives in luxury in Turkey and secretly owns the hotel.

The Kings Cross Hotel Istanbul.

Hakan “Big Hux” Ayik.

The Istanbul hotel has no links to its William St namesake in Sydney.

Ayik was instrumental in setting up the Lincoln Nightclub in Kings Cross where he was the right-hand man of former boss Mick Hawi, who was gunned down in 2018.

Ayik runs his drug empire using encrypted devices such as BlackBerries and cipher phones. He is also considered one of the biggest narco traffickers in the world.

The Kings Cross Hotel in Istanbul, which has no link to its William St namesake in Sydney, is also frequented by other well-known identities of Turkish descent, Hakan Arif and Erkan Keskin.

Erkan Keskin.

Hakan “Little Hux” Arif.

It’s no secret to law ­enforcement that 41-year-old Ayik is now in Turkey, with the NSW Trustee and Guardian taking out full-page newspaper ads in Turkey last year warning the former Sydney boy that he owed them $4 million and if he didn’t pay up they were going to sell his car spots in Pyrmont, a Harley Davidson and shares he owns.

The debt is from an unexplained wealth order the NSW Supreme Court made in 2016.

No one expects him to miss the Harley or have need of the car spaces at Pyrmont.

“There are still warrants out for his arrest here and he won’t be coming back,’’ a NSW police officer said.

Inside one of the rooms.

Sources say Ayik is the secret owner of the hotel

Sydney’s underworld talks about Ayik in revered tones saying he is probably the wealthiest of Aussie fugitives and is now considered a major player as an inter­national drug lord.

Arif, known as “little Hux”, fled Dubai in 2018 while waiting to be extradited to Australia to face drug importation charges when arrested with Michael Ibrahim and others the year before.

Mark Buddle has also visited the Turkish Cross hotel.

Keskin, nicknamed “Eric the Wolf”, was national president of the Lone Wolf bikie gang but left Australia in late 2019 after a raft of charges against him, including kidnapping, were dropped.

At one stage the former Turkish soldier had two electronic ankle bracelets on, one for NSW Police and the other for Queensland Police while on bail for drug charges, which were eventually dropped. After NSW decided not to proceed with a number of charges against him he ­applied for an expedited passport and is now in Turkey and keeping a low profile.

Another visitor to the Kings Cross Hotel in the Turkish capital over the past year is exiled Comanchero boss Mark Buddle.

A long-time associate of the Turkish crews, he is believed to have had an office in the hotel before returning to Dubai where he is now based.

Ayik is a dual Turkish-Australian national who ­Australian authorities have been chasing for more than a decade.