Australian AN0M drug kingpin Hakan Ayik leaves wife behind as he goes into hiding

Australian drug kingpin Hakan Ayik has left his wife behind, fearing for his life after he accidentally gave cops access to the criminal underworld’s secrets.

Australian drug kingpin Hakan Ayik has gone into hiding, fearing for his life after he accidentally gave police access to the criminal underworld’s secrets.

Less than three weeks after being outed as the key figure who signed up crime lords to the encrypted platform AN0M, Ayik appears to have abandoned his home in Bestikas, an up-market suburb in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

The 42-year-old is believed to have left behind his glamorous Dutch wife Fleur Messelink and their two young sons as he tries to avoid retribution from furious organised crime groups whose members are facing decades in jail.

The former Sydney fugitive has been a marked man ever since New Corp Australia revealed on June 8 that the Australian Federal Police had used him as an “influencer’’ to spread the AN0M encrypted communications devices and platform through the criminal underworld.

AN0M marketed itself as “designed by criminals, for criminals’’ but was in fact a law enforcement Trojan horse, run by the FBI and monitored by the Australian Federal Police, who secretly captured 25 million messages sent on the platform.

Hakan Ayik at a pharmaceutical factory in India where he is alleged to have purchased drug precursors.

Ayik’s exact whereabouts are not known, but he is thought to still be in Turkey, with international travel considered too risky for him due to heightened law enforcement activity.

Intelligence received from the AN0M devices distributed by Ayik and others has so far led to around 1100 arrests globally, including 283 people in Australia.

An AFP spokesman declined to comment on Ayik’s whereabouts.

Hakan Ayik's wife Fleur Messelink.

Hakan Ayik, a drug lord with links to outlaw motorcycle gangs.

But AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw had warned at a press conference on June 8 that Ayik and his family were in danger.

“I think given the threat that he faces, he’s best off handing himself into us as soon as he can,’’ Mr Kershaw said at the time.

“He was one of the co-ordinators of this particular device. So he’s essentially set up his own colleagues.

Hakan Ayik’s wedding night.

“And my view would be the sooner he hands himself in and to look after his family, he’s a wanted individual, the better for him and his family.’’

Asked if Ayik’s actions had made him a “marked’’ man, Mr Kershaw replied: “probably, yes.’’

One of the world’s most wanted fugitives, Ayik, an associate of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang, fled to Turkey more than a decade ago to avoid police questions over a $230 million heroin importation.

A dual Turkish-Australian national previously known as Joseph Hakan Ayik, he has now renounced his Australian citizenship and changed his name to Hakan Reis, which is a Turkish word meaning boss or chief.

Police believe has had continued to direct major international drug-trafficking syndicates, and has lived the high life while in Turkey, investing in houses and other real estate, driving fancy cars, and associating with a group of Turkish Australians who also live in Bestikas, a prestige suburb on the edge of the famed Bosphorus waterway in Istanbul.

His wife, who also goes by the name Fabienne Fleur, is still listed as the proprietor of The Private Clinic in Istanbul, a medical facility offering hair transplants to foreign tourists.

Originally published as Australian AN0M drug kingpin Hakan Ayik leaves wife behind as he goes into hiding