Buddle asked to pay bribes to stay in Northern Cyprus: lawyer

Detained Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle was being stood over in Northern Cyprus and asked to pay bribes so he could stay on the island, his lawyer has revealed in bombshell claims.

Detained Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle was being stood over in Northern Cyprus and asked to pay bribes so he could stay on the island, his lawyer has revealed in bombshell claims.

Buddle’s lawyer has spoken out on his behalf, revealing the bikie kingpin said he was told by a group acting as middle men that politicians wanted money to allow him to stay on the beautiful Mediterranean Island.

His attorney also said Buddle confirmed he had paid the bribes, saying he didn’t want to be separated from his new wife, a local Northern Cypriot woman known only as Ozge.

However he was grabbed by police anyway in a shock raid on July 9, and taken under guard to the Turkish capital Ankara.

Before Buddle was bundled onto a flight out of Northern Cyprus the next night on July 10, he is understood to have spoken to a local journalist while still in local police custody.

Comanchero national president Mark Buddle.

Buddle and long-term partner Mel Ter Wisscha.

In an interview published in a local North Cypriot paper, Buddle is said to have revealed how he was taken by surprise by the raid.

“Seven police came through the window and took me to the police station. I asked them what it was, and they said it was a deport decision about me. They didn’t show any papers. I said I wanted to go to court but I was told that the order came from internal affairs …” the paper attributed to Buddle.

Buddle’s temporary home of Girne Port.

Buddle also was quoted in the interview as saying he was living in the picturesque Port area of Girne.

He said had a house there and was granted a residence permit for six months and he was in the restaurant and petrol business.

Buddle was arrested in North Cyprus in a sophisticated and well-executed raid involving Interpol, local police, and the Turkish coast guard — in case he tried to make a getaway on the water.

North Cyprus authorities have said the reason for Buddle’s arrest was because the man dubbed Australia’s richest bikie had been deemed “inconvenient for the peace and security of our people”.

Kyrenia Harbour in The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

New unsubstantiated allegations have also surfaced that Buddle was allegedly money laundering and hiding guns while on the island.

Cyprus is a partitioned island, divided along a line running east-west and through its capital Nicosia, with the Greek Cypriot community to the south, known as the Republic of Cyprus and the northern area, the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus controlled by Turkey.

Buddle had arrived in Northern Cyprus just weeks after the ANOM sting, an international coalition of law enforcement agencies including the AFP, which ensnared alleged criminals around the world after duping them into using phones loaded with an encrypted messaging app controlled by the FBI.

After country hopping from the United Arab Emirates to Lebanon and Iraq, Buddle had been living in Istanbul in Turkey where drug lord Hakan Ayik was also last seen after going on the run in the wake of the AN0M sting.

Buddle arrived alone on the island on July 7 last year and married a local woman in what authorities have called a “paper” marriage or a fake marriage designed to gain citizenship.

His long-term partner Mel Ter Wisscha has been living 500km away in the jet-setting seaside city of Bodrum on Turkey’s southwest coast.

Originally published as Buddle asked to pay bribes to stay in Northern Cyprus: lawyer