NSW Police target Australian drug bosses, criminals hiding overseas

Police are drawing up an international hit list of Aussie crims hiding overseas to target their assets, track their drug money and strangle their money supply.

Expat crime lords orchestrating drug importations and murders on Aussie soil have been targeted by state and federal governments in an international hit list drawn up in a concerted effort to target their assets, track their drug money and strangle their cash supply.

NSW Police Minister David Elliott personally called Federal Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton last week to discuss strategies to go after wanted crime figures who flee the country but still continue organising their illicit enterprises from their overseas hideaways, believing they are safe from local authorities.

“If you think you can go overseas to escape NSW Police, those days are gone,” Mr Elliott said.

“We are looking at Memorandums of Understanding between the State and Commonwealth which will strengthen the zero tolerance attitude which will not only allow us to break down doors locally but issue tax penalties, track the cash and make it a more seamless process for NSW Police.”

NSW Police will also base officers in New York and London to monitor the activities of overseas criminals.

The new united approach came as two rival bikie bosses, Comanchero head Mark Buddle and Hells Angel national president Angelo Pandeli, both Sydney ex-pats and now based overseas, were named as “national targets” by NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Dave Hudson.

“Crime syndicates have changed their business model over the years and especially with the advent of COVID and we are responding to this and will work with federal agencies to go after them,” Mr Hudson said.

“Commissioner Mick Fuller and I have been looking at adapting to the way we go after these guys, who are really nothing but cowards who run overseas and leave it to their underlings to do the dirty work and face the consequences.

Known bikie associate Marco Coffen, who police want to speak to. Picture: Facebook

“It ends in two ways — in the back of a police wagon or the back of a hearse.”

The Daily Telegraph understands there are about 14 alleged crooks living overseas which NSW Police and NSW Crime Commission consider Regional Priority Organised Targets — or RPOTS.

Many also appear on separate lists held by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

The list is understood to include four well-established Asian crime figures.

Besides Buddle and Pandeli, police here are understood to want to speak to former Sydney Comancheros Marco Coffin, Hakan ‘Little Hux’ Arif and Hakan ‘Big Hux’ Ayik.

The Huxes, as they are known, are believed to be living it up in Istanbul, Turkey.

Comancheros boss Mark Buddle wants to set up a mafia-like commission.

Meanwhile Buddle, who has earned a reputation in the underworld for his ambitious plans to run drugs into Australia from overseas, is attempting to set up a Mafia-style commission.

“To ALL Main Players in Aus and Abroad all who land work in Sydney/NSW. As of 2021, there will be a Sydney commission that will be formed,’’ he allegedly said in a message to Sydney crime bosses in January.

“Every time a stamp (shipment) lands in Sydney, you reach out to the commission and tell them what stamp it is, pay a small fee to the commission.”

While NSW Police will work with federal agencies on the players living overseas they will also attack their footsoldiers here in Sydney.

“If you are in any way associated with these groups, assume you and your money are being monitored,” Mr Elliott said.

“The problem for NSW Police and any state, in particular NSW because Sydney is home to a lot of crime syndicates and families — we are dealing with borderless crime. That’s why Commissioner Fuller is now in the process of embedding two officers in London and New York.”

Angelo Pandeli, president of the Hells Angels in Sydney, is Buddle’s rival.

The local side effects of Australia’s transnational crime problem are the bloody turf wars and gang feuds which have erupted in Sydney’s western suburbs, which are believed to be largely related to imported drugs.

There have been more than 70 public place shootings in NSW in the past year alone.

The ACIC is open about the fact it has a “special investigation” under way into crime syndicates who “exert significant influence over Australia’s illicit commodity markets”.

“In particular, highest criminal groups based overseas see Australia as an attractive market for illicit drugs,” Mr Elliott said.

“These groups operate in partnership with domestic groups who provide specialist facilitators capable of smuggling illicit drugs through border controls.”