NSW’s most wanted: Vanishing men who left police baffled
They are the mystery men of NSW who are accused of heinous crimes before disappearing without a trace. Despite flying under the radar, police continue to seek these men here and overseas.
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- Hakan Ayik’s $4 million property empire seized
- Australian fugitives caught in violence around the world
They are the state’s “most wanted” but least desirable people.
They have gone to ground or to the ends of the earth to escape police - and it’s worked.
These are the men who have vanished without a trace, baffling NSW Police in their pursuit of justice.
BILAL HAOUCHAR
Few in law enforcement would have shed tears at the news Haouchar had quit Australia last year.
Police said he was one of Sydney’s most dangerous men and feared “he wants to shoot an Ibrahim”. So concerned were they, officers visited Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim’s Dover Heights home to warn him.
Haouchar was jailed over the 2012 shooting death of Ali Eid in Punchbowl but released in 2018 after the murder charge was downgraded to accessory after the fact and he pleaded guilty.
In March 2019 it emerged Haouchar was wanted on kidnapping and a second warrant for breaching a community order and he was a priority target for NSW Police.
He is believed to have travelled to Lebanon, where his parents were from.
HAKAN “LITTLE HUX” ARIF
Life on the road for Arif – another vanishing Comanchero bikie associate - almost ended with a monumental round-up of suspects titled Operation Veyda in 2017.
The AFP investigation led to Dubai police arresting Arif and four other Australians.
But Arif – also known as Mr Billionaire for his lofty alleged position in a smuggling syndicate – was granted bail in the UAE.
Rather than stick around for subsequent court hearings or an extradition to Sydney, Arif disappeared off the grid in 2018. Police suspect he went to Turkey on a fake passport.
HAKAN “BIG HUX” AYIK
Ayik is still believed to be pulling the levers on international drug transactions after skipping bail and leaving Australia in 2010, according to police.
Repeat attempts to execute an international arrest warrant for the former Comanchero over the suspected importation of 224kg of heroin from Bangkok, have failed.
Most notably, Spanish police bungled the arrest of Ayik in October 2012 when they pounced on the wrong man, mistakenly arresting Ayik’s close friend Daux Ngakuru. Ngakuru was released without charge and Spanish authorities had wasted some of the best intelligence on Ayik’s whereabouts.
Ayik was also arrested in Cyprus shortly after he disappeared in 2010, but is slipped the net there too.
The NSW Trustee and Guardian recently placed an ad in Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, warning Ayik he owed the state $4 million in unexplained wealth and his remaining assets including CBD parking spaces and a Harley Davidson would be sold off.
MELIAD FARAH
Farah – a former used car salesman from Kogarah – is wanted on an Interpol red notice, accused of helping blow up a bus in Bulgaria on behalf of terror group Hezbollah in 2012.
Seven people including five Israeli tourists were killed in the explosion near Burgas airport as the bus made it’s way to popular resorts near the Black Sea.
Farah is believed to have left Sydney after he was accused of ripping off the Commonwealth Bank by lying on loan documents to get an apartment in 2005.
JAMES DALAMANGAS
One of the country’s longest-running fugitives is Dalamangas who fled to Greece after the 1999 stabbing death of security guard George Giannopoulos in a Sydney nightclub.
Dalamangas did not actually have to run that far. He has stayed in Greece from the day he arrived there as far as NSW Police are aware.
Efforts to extradite him in 2003 were denied by Greek authorities and just last year NSW Homicide Squad boss Grant Taylor issued a new plea for information on his location, which came with a $200,000 reward attached.
Dalamangas is also wanted for questioning over the 1997 shooting murder of Kings Cross bouncer Tim Voukelates.
BRADY HAMILTON
The ginger beard and wayward mullet hairstyle of Hamilton is a vision which was taunted detectives now for two decades.
Police believe he was a Comanchero bikie enforcer sent to rough-up a man named Peter Ledger in 1999.
But things allegedly got out of hand and Ledger was killed, his body dumped at a home in Erskine Park.
BASHEERRUDDIN MOHAMMED
Few runaways are wanted for an alleged crime as bloody as Mohammed’s.
The body of his so-called friend Shoukat Mohammed was found wrapped in a sleeping bag and placed head-down in a bin ahead of rubbish collection day at Redfern in June 2003.
But before police could identify Mohammed as a suspect, he had told immigration he was in the country illegally and deported, most likely to India.
MOHAMAD MAKSOUD
Not all our fugitives are wanted for high crimes.
Maksoud is still on the state’s most wanted list 10 years after he is alleged to have facilitated car rebirthing on a large scale.
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