Turkish authorities have arrested Australian fugitive Hakan Ayik along with 36 other members of an alleged international organised crime network.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Thursday that Ayik was detained in Istanbul after a raid.
The Turkish government has released a video of the arrested men, which shows a man kneeling, handcuffed and shirtless, with a large tattoo on his shoulder that matches Ayik’s image on social media.
Yerlikaya stated that Ayik was allegedly involved in global drug trafficking, manslaughter, looting and money laundering. The minister also claimed that Ayik, also known as Reis, and Duax Hohepa Ngakuru had been underworld leaders since at least last year.
Ayik is wanted in the US and Ngakuru is wanted in New Zealand. Nicknamed the “Facebook gangster” in Australia, Ayik has been on New South Wales’ most wanted list for more than a decade for “supplying large commercial quantities of drugs.”
In 2021, Ayik unknowingly helped distribute the AN0M encrypted messaging app, which Australian police then used to apprehend more than 220 alleged criminals in a three-year operation in 18 countries.
Police reported that the app was used worldwide by more than 11,000 members of organised crime groups to plan executions, mass drug smuggling and money laundering.
The app was distributed by Ayik after undercover agents managed to give him a phone. Ayik distributed and even sold phones with the app through the black market to a wide network of criminal players.
