Fugitive Mark Horne found in boat off coast of Northern Territory

Three months after cutting off his ankle monitoring bracelet and fleeing Sydney, fugitive Mark Horne was found cowering in boat bound for Asia from Darwin.

Crouched inside the hull of a yacht bound for Asia and clutching a blue vape, the game was up for fugitive Mark Horne.

Three months after police say he cut off an ankle monitoring bracelet in Sydney and fled interstate, authorities tracked down the wanted man on Wednesday, tucked inside a boat in the Northern Territory.

Intelligence led police to Darwin’s Cullen Bay Marina, 2km from the centre of the city, where they boarded a yacht and found the 32-year-old man hiding beneath a fuel tank.

Horne’s arrest, which came just hours before the boat was due to leave for South-East Asia, marked the end of his time on the run.

NSW Police began searching for Horne after he cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet in the back seat of an Uber he hopped into at Riverwood, on October 21.

Horne was allegedly discovered concealed inside a boat. Picture: NT Police

A major manhunt was launched with police suspecting the wanted man fled on a private jet from Bankstown Airport to a regional location.

The bikie associate was on bail and due to face trial over the 2020 shooting and robbery of a truck driver in the NSW Blue Mountains.

Police allege $550,000 was stolen from his truck.

The driver survived the shooting.

Dramatic arrest.... Mark Horne.

Horne had surrendered his passport as part of his bail conditions, but police suspected he was using a fake identity to aid his escape, or that he would escape by water.

He is due to face an extradition hearing in Darwin on Monday, and will be brought back to NSW under a heavy police escort.

Horne’s unsuccessful escape is the latest in a string of failed attempts, as accused men get more desperate and police intelligence advances.

Restaurateur and alleged drug kingpin Mustafa Baluch, 33, was discovered in the boot of a Mercedes Benz hidden in a container on the back of a truck after he cut off an electronic monitoring bracelet and fled.

He had been granted bail just four days earlier.

Masood Zakaria escaped Australia to Turkey.

Mustafa Baluch also tried to evade police.

Police stopped the truck on the NSW/Queensland border and searched it where they found the fugitive hiding in the car’s boot.

Police allege Baluch was involved in an organised crime syndicate that conspired to import three tonnes of cocaine with an estimated street value of $900m.

He is now locked up inside Goulburn Jail’s high risk management unit, awaiting trial.

Alleged Alameddine crime clan kingpin Masood Zakaria is another believed to have gone to extreme lengths to flee overseas after becoming aware he was wanted by NSW Police.

Zakaria is thought to have gone from NSW to Victoria, and then across to Western Australia, where he got on a fishing boat bound for Malaysia.

Once in Asia he is suspected to have island hopped, before taking a plane to Turkey around March last year.

A warrant for his arrest on a conspiracy to murder charge, relating to the ultimately failed plot to allegedly kill Ibrahem Hamze at North Sydney in August 2021, remains outstanding.

Originally published as Fugitive Mark Horne found in boat off coast of Northern Territory