Power struggle behind global drug baron’s John Macris’ assassination

Slain crime figure John Macris was the head of a global syndicate exporting huge amounts of drugs into Australia and made up of a who’s who of Sydney’s underworld. But it was a power struggle within that police believe was the reason he was assassinated.

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Murdered criminal John Macris has been revealed as the head of an international drug-smuggling syndicate, smashing the theory he escaped the Sydney underworld for a new life in Greece as a legitimate businessman.

And NSW Police who have spent years compiling dossiers on his activities suspect he was toppled by rivals within his own organisation.

Revealing his extensive criminal network for the first time, criminal intelligence puts Macris at the head of a global operation made up of a who’s who of Sydney’s organised crime underbelly, importing huge amounts of drugs into Australia.

John Macris leaving court when he still lived in Sydney.

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Among his criminal business associates were Comanchero president Mark Buddle, a senior Hells Angels figure and NSW’s most wanted fugitive Hakan Ayik, according to law enforcement intelligence.

While rumours surrounding his shooting at the Athens mansion he shared with his model wife and children have centred on a Greek gang hit, local police suggest he was taken out by senior figures from his own network wanting him out of the way.

Macris, 46, left Australia in 2009 to start a new life in Greece but remained on Australian police radar. He was the target of an organised crime investigation when he was gunned down last year.

The local arm of his operation included a well-established drug cook believed to be the man who shot Fadi Ibrahim outside his Castle Cove home in 2010.

The cook’s criminal activities and associates landed him on the National Criminal Target List, a roll call of the country’s most influential criminals at home and abroad compiled by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

Ibrahim survived and it was long suspected that Macris, a sworn Ibrahim family enemy, ordered the failed hit.

Macris’s widow Viktoria Karida recently described her husband, who ran a security company, as an angel with an open heart who never bothered anyone.

Macris was gunned down outside his Athens home in November last year. Picture: Proto Thema

Macris was farewelled in a service at St Nektarios Church in Voula, Greece, attended by his widow Viktoria Karida and family. Picture: Angelo Christofilopoulos

But a senior law enforcement source has revealed for the first time the full extent of the criminal network, with tentacles reaching into Spain, Dubai, Greece and Sydney.

“He was one of the biggest importers, no doubt about that,” an official said.

The syndicate was made up of offshore and domestic arms, run by high-ranking organised crime figures and had several tiers.

There were dozens of players between Macris at the top and the low-level delivery drivers, including high-ranking bikies, distribution managers, and muscle men who forged feared reputations on the streets of southwest Sydney.

Police also identified corrupt baggage handlers at Australian airports suspected of sneaking drugs through the borders.

Similar to the international drug trafficking syndicate involving Michael Ibrahim, people who work at the borders, referred to as “doors”, act as a passage for drug importers.

According to the source, the network was packing drugs in the Netherlands and hiding it in shipments of food or smuggling it in luggage on passenger planes.

The Sydney arm of the distribution allegedly had links to the notorious Ahmad family, which includes enforcers and crime figures from the eastern suburbs to the western suburbs.

Comanchero bikie gang boss Mark Buddle.

One of Australia’s most-wanted men Hakan Ayik.

The network offers an insight into the modern organised crime world, where bikies do business with each other regardless of their patches and share routes and contacts.

That includes professional facilitators such as lawyers and accountants who help launder drug money around the world.

Law enforcement have identified at least one financial adviser who was being used by multiple figures in the Macris syndicate.

ACIC refused to comment on operational matters yesterday.

Originally published as Power struggle behind global drug baron’s John Macris’ assassination