Australia’s most wanted man Hakan Ayik set up a new drug-smuggling, money-laundering gang in Turkey, prosecutors say

Australia’s most wanted man Hakan Ayik set up a new drug-smuggling, money-laundering gang in Turkey, prosecutors say, as they bring charges against Ayik and 39 other alleged associates.

Hakan Ayik in arrest vision released by Turkish authorities. Picture: Supplied

Australia’s most wanted man, Hakan Ayik, is alleged to have set up a new crime gang in Turkey during his time in exile there, and was involved in smuggling 1200kg of drugs in the last two years alone, most of it to ­Australia.

Documents show Turkish authorities who arrested Ayik 10 days ago believe he set up a criminal syndicate in Istanbul with close links to the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang, staffed by his Australian criminal friends and associates.

In a referral letter sent by the Chief Prosecutor of Istanbul to the Palace of Justice, where Ayik and others have been detained, authorities outline how they ­believe Ayik’s syndicate was ­operating in Turkey.

This included working with other syndicates, setting up its own foreign exchange business and opening a hotel to launder the proceeds of drug trafficking.

Hakan Ayik, who was arrested by Turkish Police on November 2. Picture: Supplied

It also shows how close Sydney-based Ayik and his cronies had become with Melbourne model-turned-bikie Hasan Topal, another Comanchero-linked fugitive from Australia who fled to Turkey in 2019.

The Weekend Australian has been told that the police sting involving the encrypted app AN0M, which was promoted by Ayik as a secure way to communicate, but which had actually been funded by the FBI and decoded by the Australian Federal Police, was integral in gathering evidence against him and his criminal associates.

The referral letter states that Ayik organised meetings at a hotel between investors collaborating on criminal ventures. The hotel is not named, but is likely to be the Kings Cross Hotel in Istanbul, the criminal syndicate’s official headquarters, situated close to the Ozdilek Park and Metrocity shopping malls, where a number of his cronies lived in apartments.

Authorities claimed that Ayik, his former Sydney offsider Hakan Arif, and another alleged member of the AN0M Enterprises syndicate, Swedish-Serbian citizen Maximilian Rivkin, were directors, investors and brokers in the Turkish syndicate.

Australians Duax Ngakuru, Erkan Dogan, Baris Tukel, Hasan Topal (known as Alp Ozturk) and Jimmy Avaijan were claimed to be involved in supply, distribution and co-ordination, while another Australian, Bahattin Ferhan, was named as a “provider’’.

Daux Ngakuru leaving Central Local Court in Sydney in 2010.

Ngakuru was arrested last January, and the rest of the men were detained in raids 10 days ago that saw 40 people arrested in a crackdown by Turkish National Police on foreign criminals hiding in Turkey.

Ngakuru and Topal were senior office holders with the ­Comancheros in Australia, and Ngakuru held an international leadership role.

The prosecutor’s referral letter states that the Comancheros gained a foothold in Turkey under the leadership of Ayik, who fled Australia in 2010 as police closed in on a drug shipment he was alleged to have been involved in. While a number of them including Ayik were wanted on Interpol red notices for extradition to Australia, the US and New Zealand, they have been charged on domestic Turkish charges including establishing an organisation for the purpose of committing a crime, being a member of an ­organisation established for the purpose of committing a crime, concealing the source of assets and manufacturing drugs.

Model-turned-bikie Hasan Topal.

While 22 of the accused were released on bail, 18 were remanded in custody.

Those bailed include Rana and Romi Awaijan, the wife and son of Jimmy Awaijan, who has been remanded in custody.

According to authorities, Ayik was involved in a number of drug shipments in recent years. He is alleged to have organised for people to take receipt of a shipment of cocaine allegedly connected to Erkan Dogan, hidden in wax, and sent to an address in Australia.

He was also claimed to have invested in the importation of 140kg of methamphetamine to Australia via South Korea in January 2021. Further, authorities alleged that Ayik co-ordinated the transfer of 350kg of cocaine off the coast of South Korea in February 2021.

He is further alleged to have co-ordinated the arrival in Australia of 700kg of cocaine from South America, via Hong Kong, in 2021.

The AFP has been working for years with the Turkish National Police in a bid to bring fugitives back to Australia to face the courts. It’s likely evidence ­obtained via AN0M was provided to the Turkish police, who visited Australia earlier this year to meet their Australian counterparts.

The referral letter notes that communications of the “Turkish group’’ headed by Ayik relating to international drug trafficking were “deciphered as a result of the analysis of a platform called AN0M Enterprises’’.