Covert operation surrounding Mark Buddle extradition revealed

From private jets to transfers under the cover of darkness, security arrangements for Mark Buddle’s extradition have been a major operation for law enforcement.

Bikie strongman Mark Buddle will be flown to Melbourne under the kind of high-risk prisoner transfer operation unseen since the return of Tony Mokbel.

Buddle is expected to be brought in by private jet to Melbourne within days, where he will answer charges over an alleged $40m cocaine smuggling plot.

The self-appointed Comanchero “commander of the world” was flown back into Darwin on Wednesday morning on a charter flight via Singapore after years spent living in exile in Europe and the Middle East.

The plane, a Dassault Falcon, landed at 4.30am on Wednesday morning, where Turkish officials, under the cover of darkness, handed Buddle over to a waiting team of Australian Federal Police.

Comanchero Boss Mark Buddle is expected to be brought in by private jet to Melbourne within days. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.

Buddle, already in handcuffs, was formally arrested on the tarmac in front of a closed public terminal.

The AFP arrest team included members of the highly trained specialist response group.

In an unusual move, prompted by security concerns, the AFP took Buddle to the Northern Territory Police’s Palmerston watch house instead of the cells at the AFP’s station next to the airport terminal.

The watch house was built with high-security prisoners in mind, and features exterior windows and bollards to prevent ram raids.

During his brief court appearance on Wednesday, Northern Territory Chief Magistrate Elisabeth Morris gave the AFP the option of continuing to hold him at the watchhouse, or transferring him to the territory’s main prison, the Darwin Correctional Centre.

Buddle was formally arrested on the tarmac in front of a closed public terminal. Picture: Australian Federal Police

Rank and file territory police and prison officers have not been told if Buddle has, or will be been moved to the prison.

However, sources at the Darwin Correctional Centre said guards were told to prepare a cell for likely use by an unnamed “high-profile remandee” in a small section of the 1000-bed prison reserved for inmates who pose a major security concern.

The cell has previously housed notorious murderer Andy Albury, and corrupt former police commissioner John McRoberts.

Security arrangements for Buddle’s next flight, to get him back to Melbourne are well advanced.

The AFP arrest team included members of the highly trained specialist response group.

Court orders require him to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court by August 10.

While most prisoners are extradited on commercial flights, in handcuffs, accompanied by two or three police, the AFP are likely to charter a plane for Buddle, the most-wanted prisoner in the country.

The threat is not so much from Buddle, who would be handcuffed, possibly shackled and accompanied by heavily armed police.

Authorities would be more conscious of the risk posed by others.

It is unclear where Buddle will be held on arrival.

Buddle with Comanchero national president Allan Meehan.

Buddle has been arrested for allegedly importing more than 160kg of cocaine into Melbourne in May. Picture: Australian Federal Police

The majority of Comanchero in the state’s jails are held at Port Phillip Prison in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

The last time Australian Police used a private jet to extradite anyone back to Australia was when drug boss Tony Mokbel was brought back to Australia from Greece in 2007.

He had bolted a year earlier after learning he was to be charged with murder.

That operation used a chartered Gulfstream jet which also carried two Australian police and two Interpol officers.