Police believe Ayik signed off on assassinating Comanchero bikie buddy Buddle

Gangster Hakan Ayik signed off on a $20m hit on his former bikie comrade Mark Buddle, police believe, as members of the Comanchero bikie gang turned on each other.

Australian drug lord Hakan Ayik when he was arrested in Northern Turkey in 2010. He was granted bail by a court and then vanished from the country.

Gangster Hakan Ayik signed off on a $20m hit on his former bikie comrade Mark Buddle, police believe, as members of the Comanchero bikie gang turned on each other.

Messages and intelligence uncovered on the encrypted app AN0M showed a man based in Montenegro, who went by the user handle “ownagain”, had begun planning and co-ordinating an assassination attempt on Buddle, a former Sydney boss of the Comanchero who had moved to Dubai in 2016.

The hit was ordered by a man in Australia who police allege is a major international drug trafficker, and is in jail facing a string of charges. International criminal associates of the man in Australia were prepared to pay $20m to have Buddle killed, police believe.

Ayik, a Comanchero associate who fled Australia in 2010 after becoming aware he was wanted for questioning over a $230m heroin shipment, ultimately signed off on the hit, police believe, as part of a business deal with the man in Australia.

The Australian Federal Police, who were secretly monitoring the 28 million messages sent on AN0M, discovered messages between the man in Australia and “ownagain’’.

The messages showed a “credible threat’’ to the life of Buddle, and contained intelligence that another person had already travelled to Dubai to carry out the hit.

Former Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle with his then partner, Mel Ter Wisscha. Picture: Supplied

The AFP alerted Buddle’s then partner and mother of his two daughters, Mel Ter Wisscha, of their concern for Buddle and his family’s safety.

However, Buddle had already left Dubai, moving to Iraq, Lebanon and finally to Turkey. He married a local woman, Ozge Kavus, who is now pregnant, and obtained residency in Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus, but was deported to Australia in August last year.

He is currently in a Victorian jail facing charges alleging he was involved in a $40m drug shipment to Melbourne in May 2021.

The AFP believes the feud between the man in Australia and Buddle related to a dispute over money.

A small group of Sydney men have played an outside role in the leadership of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang for decades, after becoming friends in high school.

Ayik, an associate of the club, went to James Cook Boys Technology High School in Sydney with Duax Ngakuru, who also left Australia in 2011 and is now based in Turkey. Ngakuru was recently appointed supreme commander of the Comanchero internationally, with the backing of Ayik.

The pair also had a long-term friendship with Mick Hawi, the former Sydney Comanchero boss shot dead outside a gym in Rockdale in suburban Sydney in 2018, who had attended the same school.

Interpol has a red notice out for Ngakuru, who is wanted over drug-smuggling allegations in New Zealand.