Australian and Kiwi ‘sting of the century’ arrests

An Australian man living in ­Colombia and a New Zealander with links to Australia have been arrested on an indictment alleging they were part of a criminal enterprise running encrypted underworld app AN0M.

Joseph Hakan Ayik.

An Australian man living in ­Colombia and a New Zealander with links to Australia have been arrested on an indictment alleging they were part of a 17-man criminal enterprise running encrypted underworld app AN0M.

Former Sydney man Osemah El Hassen and New Zealand citizen Shane Ngakuru were arrested as the FBI continues to slowly chase down the global group they allege was responsible for administering, distributing and marketing the encrypted devices and platform known as AN0M, widely used in the criminal underworld.

All 17 are indicted on US racketeering charges, which carry 20-year jail terms.

Mr El Hassen is a relative of Lebanese-based Hamzi El Hassen, an associate of the man accused of being a key AN0M mastermind, former Comanchero bikie figure and Australia’s most wanted man, Hakan Ayik, who is on the run in Turkey.

He was arrested by the Colombian National Police in Bogota in July 2021, but does not yet appear to have been extradited to the US to face the charges on the indictment.

In August 2021, Colombian police issued a statement in Spanish that advised: “Colombia’s Attorney-General, the police DIJIN investigative unit and Interpol co-ordinated operations last month to capture Osemah Elhassen, an Australian citizen wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) based on charges filed in the Southern District of California.

“Colombia’s Attorney-General indicated that Elhassen is wanted for belonging to a transnational drug trafficking network active in Europe, Asia and South America.

“The International Affairs ­Directorate of the Colombian prosecutor’s office, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ­informed the United States ­embassy about the capture of ­Osemah Elhassen for the purposes of formalising the extradition request within the term established by law,’’ the statement concluded.

Mr El Hassen – named on the indictment as Osemah Elhassen – is accused of being a distributor of the AN0M devices.

Shane Ngakuru, another alleged distributor, is a New Zealand citizen who was residing in the tourist town of Phuket in Thailand, and was arrested in October.

He is a close relative of Duax Ngakuru, the international supreme commander of the Comanchero, who is a close friend of Mr Ayik.

On Monday, The Australian revealed authorities were closing in on Mr Ayik and Duax Ngakuru and it was heavily rumoured the Comanchero boss had been arrested in Turkey. Duax Ngakuru is not accused of involvement in the AN0M enterprise.

Shane Ngakuru, 43, was arrested by Royal Thai Police outside a shopping centre in Bangkok, where police allege he was fleeing after discovering a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

At a press conference, Central Investigative Bureau Police Lieutenant General Jiraphop ­Phuridech alleged Mr Ngakuru was a member of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club, who had arrived in Thailand in 2020 and had been running a tattoo parlour, restaurant and fitness centre with his Thai wife.

He said Mr Ngakuru had overstayed his visa, and had been deported to the US.

AN0M was touted as a secure, encrypted communications device, which was distributed only in the criminal underworld and could be remotely wiped.

In fact it was being secretly run and monitored by the Australian Federal Police and the FBI.

The sting of the century, known as Operation Ironside, was exposed in June 2021, when police across the globe moved on people accused of using the app, arresting more than 1400 people and seizing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of drugs, cash, houses, cars and weapons.

Seven Australians were among the 17 men alleged to have been part of what the FBI called the AN0M Enterprise, and are wanted on indictment alleging they were either administrators, distributors, or influencers who encouraged others to use the app.

Four of the Australians are in custody, and none have been extradited to the US.

Mr El Hassen is believed to still be held in Colombia. A second Australian man, Edwin Harmendra Kumar, 35, has agreed to be surrendered but his extradition case remains stalled in Sydney, and he has been in custody for 18 months.

A third Australian, whose details have been suppressed by the courts, also remains in Australia.

And a fourth man, Shane Geoffrey May, who authorities originally said was believed to be residing in Indonesia, was arrested in South Australia in August.

Mr May, 47, was charged with 31 counts of money laundering and trafficking large commercial quantities of drugs – separate charges to the AN0M case.

He remains in custody, and police prosecutors have advised the courts in South Australia that an agreement had been reached between Australian and US ­authorities that no Australians would be extradited to the US until any domestic matters were ­finalised and any jail terms ­completed.

Three other accused Australian members of the enterprise remain listed by the FBI as “fugitive”.

Mr Ayik, Baris Tukel and Erkan Yusef Dogan, who is believed to be a relative of Mr Ayik’s, are all hiding out in Turkey.

While they had believed they were safe from extradition, Turkey has recently begun deporting people wanted internationally on crime and terrorism charges, including Australians Mark Buddle, Tony Haddad and Neil Prakash, and authorities believe the net may be closing on the three alleged AN0M gangsters.

In July, a spokeswoman for the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of California, which is prosecuting the AN0M matters, said neither Mr El Hassen nor Mr Kumar were in US custody.

The spokeswoman declined in November and December to provide an update on any of the 17 men named on the AN0M indictment.

The first person on the indictment extradited to the US was UK citizen Aurangzeb “Bobby’’ Ayub, who had been residing in The Netherlands.

Mr Ayub first appeared in a court of the Southern District of California on March 21 where he entered a plea of not guilty, and later that month was released on a $100,000 bond and ordered to wear a GPS tracking device.

Mr Ngakuru, who was deported from Thailand in October, is also in the hands of US authorities.