Drug lord Joseph Hakan Ayik’s $4m property empire to be seized
He has been at the top of Australia’s most wanted list since he skipped the country over a $230m heroin importation a decade ago. Now police are using old school methods trying to track down Joseph Hakan Ayik, who police believe is still heavily involved in the international drug trafficking market.
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He was an Australian crime don who pioneered the use of encrypted phones and messaging to organise huge international drug importations.
But in a bid to get in touch with NSW’s public enemy number one – Joseph Hakan Ayik – law enforcement is trying a more traditional method – newspaper advertising.
The Comanchero bikie club and Triad crime gang associate has been at the top of Australia’s most wanted list since he skipped the country while wanted over a $230m heroin importation a decade ago.
Ayik – nicknamed Huks – has managed to evade authorities on at least three occasions in Europe and police believe he is still heavily involved in the international drug trafficking market.
Now NSW authorities are getting ready to put the 40-year-old’s property under the hammer, having placed a restraining order over his assets.
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This month, the NSW Trustee and Guardian placed an advertisement in Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet, in the hope Ayik would read it.
The full page ad warned the fugitive he owed the state of NSW almost $4 million and his remaining assets, including car park spaces in Pyrmont, a Harley Davidson and shares, would be sold off.
The debt arises from an unexplained wealth order the NSW Supreme Court made in 2016, almost six years after the NSW Crime Commission applied for restraining orders over the burly fugitive’s assets.
Ayik is a dual Turkish-Australian national who has been seamlessly crossing international borders ever since he left Sydney after being the target of the country’s largest organised crime investigation at the time.
While he has been linked to Dubai, Spain and Cyprus, the newspaper advertisement is a clear indication law enforcement believes he is still hiding out in Turkey.
The NSW Crime Commission first began legal action against Ayik in 2010 under the Criminal Assets Recovery Act.
Asset confiscation is considered one of the commission’s most effective tools in tackling organised crime.
Over the years he has been linked to Kings Cross figure turn Balkan drug smuggler Vaso Ulic and the importation of 150 kilograms of drugs into the UK.
It allows the crime fighting agency to investigate how much a person has made from illegal activities and then make a claim through the NSW Supreme Court to have it paid back.
A criminal’s assets are often frozen and properties restrained if the activity is linked to the proceeds of crime.
Once the court makes an unexplained wealth order, it falls to the NSW Trustee and Guardian to collect the money, including through selling off assets.
Last year, $30 million was generated through unexplained wealth orders and redirected into funding for crime fighting activities in NSW.
According to the newspaper ad, Ayik’s debt is $3.851 million and the assets he left behind when he fled Sydney in 2010 will be sold to pay the debt off.
That includes four car park spaces on Harris St in Pyrmont, a Harley Davidson motorcycle, money left in his Australian bank accounts and 110 shares in two companies.
Property records show Ayik sold a two bedroom two bathroom unit at Rockdale in 2011 for $492,000.
A high-rise apartment in Pitt Street in the CBD, where Ayik lived before he left the country in 2010, sold for $785,000 a year later.
The proceeds of those property sales have been restrained by the Supreme Court.
The case has been adjourned to next month to allow the newspaper ad time to circulate through the Turkish community and in case Ayik emerges from hiding and decides to respond.
That is unlikely given the lengths he has gone to avoid authorities.
But while he hasn’t stepped foot in Australia for almost 10 years, his influence over the lucrative drug market remains strong.
Ayik left Australia bound for Hong Kong in early 2010.
A few months later his co-accused in a large heroin importation were arrested and law enforcement believes Ayik got wind of the crackdown and never returned to Australia.
Despite that, he maintained links to global organised crime figures who continue to import drugs in Australia.
In 2015, Ayik was caught in the crosshairs of an investigation involving Vaso Ulic, a former Kings Cross drug dealer who moved offshore and according to police, became “the kingpin” of importing drugs into Australia.
Ayik was suspected of helping Ulic import 150 kilograms of drugs into the UK and moving millions of dollars to Dubai.
Ulic was arrested in Montenegro in 2018 and pleaded guilty to importing drugs into Sydney and Western Australia.
Ayik has also been linked to the same international drug network as slain gangster John Macris.
According to police intelligence, Ayik and Macris were part of a global criminal web that shared importers and facilitators in different countries, including Australia.