Police allege crime kingpin Hakan Ayik was the key to undercover sting

Fugitive Hakan Ayik, dubbed the ‘Facebook gangster’, was a pioneer of encrypted phones in Australia. Now he’s helped expose his global criminal network.

Hakan Ayik at a pharmaceutical factory in India where he alleged to have purchased drug precursors.

A pioneer of the use of encrypted phones in Australia, Hakan Ayik is alleged to have become one of the country’s biggest drug traffickers, co-ordinating mass shipments of methamphetamine and cocaine from his base in Istanbul.

Now the man dubbed the “Facebook gangster” for flaunting his lavish lifestyle on social media has helped expose his global network of criminals.

As revealed in The Australian in March, Ayik, also known as “Big Huks”, has been blithely promoting encrypted phone app ANOM to his considerable underworld connections including Mexican cartels, Asian triads and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

His stamp of approval has sealed the fate of associates who believed they could communicate on the app without detection, sharing far more than they would by other means.

Authorities have now revealed ANOM was a trojan horse operated by the FBI and monitored by the Australian Federal Police.

Millions of messages exchanged on the app were monitored by police in real time.

Early suggestions from police are that Ayik, described as the principal distributor of ANOM, was an unwitting participant in the sting after special agents pushed the app to him.

His associates, including some who will have a lot of time to think behind bars while Ayik himself still remains free in Turkey, will now be replaying his every action.

AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw agreed on Tuesday that Ayik was probably a marked man.

“I think given the threat that he faces, he’s best off handing himself into us as soon as he can.

“He was one of the coordinators of this particular device. So he’s essentially set up his own colleagues.

“My view would be the sooner he hands himself in, and to took after his family, he’s a wanted individual, the better for him and his family.”

Ayik and Duax Ngakuru were lieutenants to Comanchero boss Mick Hawi, who was shot dead as he left the Rockdale Fitness First gym in Sydney’s south in February 2018.

Hawi transformed the club into the modern criminal enterprise it is today, and Ayik was reputedly highly valued for his lucrative drug shipments and money laundering skills.

Ayik fled Australia in 2010 when he was about to be arrested over a $230 million heroin shipment.

Ayik was a keen bodybuilder and Facebook user.

He was briefly detained in Cyprus later that year but escaped. He was arrested in Cyprus again the same year but was handed bail and fled again.

In 2012, he escaped a bungled police sting in Spain when authorities went to arrest him and mistakenly swooped on a close friend, Ngakuru, who was not the target and was released without charge.

He has since been living in Istanbul under a new name, Hakan Reis, with his Dutch wife, Fleur Messelink. The name Reis means “chief” in Turkish.

Hakan Ayik and Fleur Messelink on their wedding day.

He was last week publicly outed as owner of Istanbul’s Kings Cross Hotel, a nod to his former home town, while Messelink runs a legitimate hair transplant business using the name Fabienne Fleur Reis.

An Australian mafia figure who has not been named has also been pushing ANOM to his connections.

It is likely to give investigators unprecedented insights into the workings of the mafia in Australia, setting up a fascinating few months and years ahead for investigators.