Operation Ironside: Aussie drug kingpin’s AN0M web exposed

Fugitive drug lord Hakan Ayik had his tentacles hooked into almost every one of the group indicted after the crime sting of the century.

Exclusive: A group of Turkish Australians living a few kilometres from each other at an upscale waterfront suburb in Istanbul have been named by the FBI as the key members of the business behind the law enforcement spy app AN0M.

And fugitive drug lord Hakan Ayik is the spider in the middle of the AN0M web, with tentacles reaching out to almost every one of the 17 people indicted by the FBI on racketeering charges.

The AN0M Files, a special investigation by News Corp Australia, has uncovered the ties that bind the group alleged to be behind the now-infamous encrypted communications device, which the FBI says pitched to clients as “designed by criminals, for criminals’’ and was meant to keep conversations away from law enforcement.

But in fact it was being run by the FBI, who bought it from a tech-savvy drug trafficker in the US, and was being secretly monitored in real time by the Australian Federal Police, after one of their agents worked out how to intercept and copy the 25 million messages sent.

Hakan Arif left) and Hakan Ayik (right) in Dubai. Picture: Network News

Police say a number of those indicted by the FBI are linked through their association to the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang in Sydney.

While Ayik, 42, is not believed to have been a Comanchero member, he is an associate of the gang and has close ties with patched members, including Duax Ngakuru, the former national Comanchero president, who spends significant time in Istanbul.

While Duax is not named in the indictment, his close relative Shane Ngakuru, a New Zealand resident living in the tourist town of Phuket, Thailand, is accused by the FBI of being a distributor of the AN0M app.

Two people charged with being “influencers’’ and encouraging others to use the devices and platform are Australians living close to Hakan Ayik in the suburb of Bestikas, an elite area bordering the famed Bosporus waterway which separates the continents of Europe and Asia.

The group is believed to all live relatively close by to the Zorlu Center, an up-market shopping mall about 3km from the Kings Cross Hotel, which appears to be controlled by Ayik.

Erkan Yusef Dogan, 32, is thought to be Ayik’s nephew, and lives nearby. He is identified by the FBI in its indictment as being both an influencer and a distributor of the devices and platform.

Group night out in a photo posted by Hakan Ayik's wife Fleur Messelink.

Baris Tukel, 34, is also accused of being both an influencer and a distributor. A former Comanchero sergeant-at-arms, he is also friends with Ayik, and was photographed at a dinner in Turkey in 2015 attended by Ayik and Duax Ngakuru. He is believed to have become less close to Ayik in recent years.

“Influencers are well-known crime figures who wield significant power and influence over other criminal associates,’’ the FBI alleged in its indictment.

“These influencers have also built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise in the hardened encrypted device field and use that … to promote, market and encourage others to use specific hardened encrypted devices.’’

Another key person in the indictment is Maximilian (Max) Rivkin, a citizen of Sweden currently residing in Turkey, nearby to Ayik and the Australians.

A well-travelled man of the world, Rivkin speaks Dutch, Serbian and a bit of Spanish, and is believed to have relocated to Istanbul to be closer to Ayik.

He is allegedly responsible for recruiting a number of foreign nationals to work as distributors for AN0M, in a pyramid-selling arrangement similar to Amway.

He is thought to have been an early adopter of the platform back in 2019.

The neighbourhood close to the Zorlu Center, an up-market shopping mall in Istanbul.

The third man accused of being an administrator is Domenico Catanzariti, 29, an Italian-Australian businessman based in Adelaide, who works for the family olive-growing business.

Police claim he was generally aware of Ayik but not a close associate. He was arrested this week.

According to the FBI, “administrators have physical control of the AN0M enterprises network and can initiative new subscriptions, set up access for distributors, remove accounts, remotely delete (wipe) and reset devices.’’

Another Australian named on the indictment is Shane Geoffrey May, who has moved to Indonesia. A separate FBI indictment alleges he used AN0M devices to talk to Baris Tukel about cocaine importations.

He does not have direct connections to Ayik, being neither Turkish nor a bikie and is thought to have been involved in the AN0M app as a way of making money.

A Sydney resident, May is believed to have been a former member of the ‘Bra Boys gang from Maroubra,

Police believe he had become dissatisfied with AN0M as it offered only a small profit margin to its distributors compared to other encrypted devices such as Ciphr.

Another accused distributor, Edwin Harmendra Kumar, 34 from Sydney, is only tenuously connected to Ayik, through an associate of his, and through the Dogan arm of the Ayik family.

The FBI alleges he was an important distributor of the devices in Australia. He was arrested on Monday.

The seventh Australian listed on the indictment, Osemah El Hassan (named as Osemah Elhassen), lives in Colombia, after apparently being sent there by his relative, Hamzi El Hassan and Ayik in order the distribute devices.

Hamzi El Hassan is known to police and lives in Lebanon, and is close to Ayik.

Colombia is considered the source country for the world’s supply of cocaine.

El Hassan was apparently not very good at managing the technology side of the AN0M distribution business.

Sdrjan Todorovic, aka Dr Djek, is Serbian resident living in Colombia. He was one of several distributors introduced to AN0M by Maximilian Rivkin, and went on to compete with Osemah El Hassan for business.

Former Comanchero boss Duax Ngakuru in Turkey. Picture: Network News

Another alleged distributor, Omar Malik, a citizen and resident of the Netherlands, knows the El Hassan family through another organised crime figure, who was for a period of time on the Australian Federal Police’s priority target list.

A number of other distributors, including Alexander Dmitrienko, a citizen of Finland and James Thomas Flood, from the UK, and both residing in Spain, are linked to Rivkin, as is Abdelhakim Aharchaou, citizen and resident of the Netherlands.

Two Netherlands citizens, Seyyed Hossein Hosseini and Miwand Zakhimi, aka Maiwand Zakhimi, are also distributors linked to Rivkin.

Aurangzeb Ayub, a British citizen residing in the Netherlands, is a friend of Ayik’s.

He was working in Dubai selling so many AN0M devices he had to set up an office there. Ayub, who goes by the name “Bobby’’, came to police attention when an employee of his was arrested in a raid on an Albanian mobster.

“Bobby’’, was also arrested and spent several months in jail. Rivkin’s associates moved in on his distribution territory while he was in jail.

While it is not illegal in Australia to distribute a hardened encrypted communications device, the US has used old anti-Mafia laws, known as Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organisation (RICO) charges, to allege a joint enterprise by the 17 defendants which “generated millions of dollars in profit by facilitating the criminal activity of transnational criminal organisations and protecting these organisations from law enforcement.’’

Australia has been unable to extradite the Turkish Australians due to Turkish reluctance to extradite its own citizens, but the FBI will seek to do the same thing for them to face court in the United States.

According to the FBI, AN0M Enterprise’s members engaged “in acts involving drug trafficking, money-laundering and obstruction of justice.’’

Do you know more? Email us at [e-mail]

Originally published as Operation Ironside: Aussie drug kingpin’s AN0M web exposed