Drug import suspect Omer Tok may be hiding out in Turkey

A Melbourne man linked to a massive cocaine shipment is suspected of hiding in a country popular with a long list of Australian fugitives.

An arrest warrant is in place for Mr Tok on a charge of allegedly trying to import a commercial quantity of cocaine.

A Melbourne man linked to a $60 million cocaine shipment is believed to have fled overseas.

Omer Tok, 44, was allegedly part of a bungled international plot in 2016 to bring 186kg of the drug into Australia, via a Chinese mothership off the state’s southwest coast.

But Mr Tok was granted bail in 2017 and is suspected of joining a long list of Australians hiding out in Turkey.

Fugitive Omer Tok is on the run.

An arrest warrant is in place for Mr Tok on a charge of allegedly trying to import a commercial quantity of cocaine.

He had been bailed on a $100,000 surety and ordered to report daily to police.

In 2018, Victoria Police issued a public appeal for help to find the fugitive, who investigators said frequented the Westmeadows area.

Although Australia has an extradition treaty with Turkey, the country has in the past been a destination for criminals from Down Under.

Melbourne Comanchero Hasan Topal fled there in 2019 and is a suspect in two bungled underworld killings and a series of other shootings.

Accused international drug trafficker Hakan Ayik and his Comanchero bikie mate Duax Hohepa Ngaraku, both of Sydney, are also believed to have spent time there in recent years.

Comanchero national sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed was refused entry to the country in September last year.

Melbourne terror figure Neil Prakash is locked up in Turkey and Australian authorities will push for his return Down Under when he is freed.

Mr Tok was accused of being part of a plan to take the drugs from a Chinese crime syndicate-controlled vessel, the KM8, and transfer them to the coast off Port Fairy.

But their boat ran into a reef at Griffiths Island and the KM8 was raided near Hobart where the cocaine haul was seized.

Two men, Youssif Tawfik and Bambang Saputra, were last November re-sentenced on appeal over the Port Fairy plot.

Tawfik will serve 20 years in jail with a minimum of 14 and Saputra 14 with a minimum of nine years and six months.

One other man has been convicted and five acquitted on conspiracy to import charges.