Inside the global hunt for Australia’s most wanted criminal | 60 Minutes Australia

good evening and welcome to the program tonight we take you inside the hunt for australia's most wanted criminal he's a rat-cunning ruthless gangster who's made an eye-watering fortune importing massive quantities of drugs into australia law enforcement authorities call the criminal network he helps run the aussie cartel but as you'll see after years outwitting the cops his arrogance could soon be his downfall we've managed to link top secret intelligence with multiple online clues including some remarkably careless facebook and instagram activity to discover this crook's secret hideout [Music] in the heart of istanbul turkey down a dark and bumpy road lies the king's cross hotel despite its look it's not very welcoming and we've been told it isn't safe to film outside the car we're here because this is the end point of a decade-long search he's likely to be armed so we need to take great precautions hunting for a man best known as the facebook gangster a criminal mastermind who's been taunting police to catch him if they can his name is hakan ayik and he's australia's most wanted criminal he's the latest generation of a model that's been going around a long time the flash cars there's the guns it comes with the territory for years ayic has been running australia's most powerful drug trafficking cartel from a secret foreign location why wouldn't you be cocky if you've been making this amount of money if you've developed a cartel of international standing and you are offshore i mean these people do what they do because underneath it all they think they're bulletproof and they think they'll never get arrested now we've found him and far from hiding hakane yik is living a flashy free life in turkey the search for this gangster has taken 13 years and began when ayik was working his way up the criminal ladder in australia in march 2008 police officers at jandakot airport near perth intercepted a light aircraft they believed was carrying illegal drugs seven million dollars worth of methyl amphetamine and ecstasy tablets crammed in a bag in the back of this small plane it turned out to be the biggest bust in western australia's history with police intelligence eventually linking the shipment to hakanek who at that stage was a new face in the drug trade at the beginning uh looked like a middle eastern organised crime figure it was it was up and coming it's generally how they sort of appear you know someone jumps up as more savvy more more brazen more police aware more difficult to catch and they hit the radar because of that one of the police interested in hakanaik was afp investigator roland single he says what made aix so successful so quickly was his brain for business forging links with the biggest chinese triads in the world giving him access to an endless supply of drugs what does that tell us about hakuna yagi back in 2009 a young up and come up he looks like all the other middle eastern crooks and bikies and yet he has the now to reach out and form tyres with what was then the biggest drug trafficking syndicate in our region the fact that he had that awareness the fact that he had the uh the wherewithal to actually develop that network was probably an unusual feature for him means he was probably pretty savvy and for such a young person at the time aix skill was working out how to get the drug safely into australia he teamed up with an old high school mate daksta guru who at the time was an enforcer for the common cherokees hakanek has obviously had the the smarts to realize um australia is a big market if i can use the bucky gangs as distributors i've got a huge i've got a huge access to the australian market and huge profits that come from that and he's now in the management team and he's directing traffic by 2010 federal agencies were convinced dayek was the mastermind behind multiple drug importations into australia but their investigations hit a major hurdle when ayic vanished overseas and went on the run so many of these gangsters say you know i love the gangster life i don't care whether i live or die i just want that flash lifestyle but the reality is there's always the concern about the knock at the door there's always the concern that you're going to be betrayed there's you're always looking over your shoulder veteran crime reporter john sylvester has come face to face with some of australia's worst criminals he says hakanayek is cunning and has a unique ability to bring together warring gangs he's been able to organize a network which involves the russian mafia triads mexican cartels organized bikey groups i mean he's developed a massive illicit business and if it was on the share market a lot of people would buy shares ayik moved his operation offshore and confident he'd never be found he became more brazen in the quantity of drugs he was sending to australia police had some wins but many more shipments were getting through undetected thanks to what investigators like roland single call doors human insiders working in our ports and airports who are willing to wave through illicit drugs for criminals as a crime syndicate if you have doors it means that you can push your product through and sell it at a at a greater price with all of that risk removed if a criminal in australia wants to buy drugs in thailand uh it'll be pretty cheap if he wants to go over there and pick it up but if he wants to deliver to his door here it's a value-add and if a syndicate's got doors they can charge more at the end how is it how can i you cast so many doors look it could be through his connections to now numerous spikey groups and middle eastern organized the sydney waterfront's a big place the air freight logistics business is a big place and for a drug lord with a lot of stock to move there are some places you want to have connections airports and airlines is qantas compromised in a discreet location on the outskirts of melbourne a former undercover agent is showing us how easy it is for criminal gangs to operate he's buying an encrypted phone on the black market good thanks uh is there any way of getting it this afternoon it's called a cipher it looks like a normal phone but all activity on the device is completely encrypted making it a must-have for australian criminals who need to avoid police detection they're like 100 secure encrypted um they're untrackable and traceable he's directed to leave sixteen hundred dollars in cash in the glove box of his unlocked car minutes later a man in a black hoodie arrives to drop off the phone there are almost 10 000 of these cypherphones in australia being used almost exclusively by serious organised crime it's no surprise then that we're not the only ones tracing their use i won't be specific about who they lead back to but it certainly leads back to elements of the aussie cartel the boss of the australian criminal intelligence commission michael phelan has been closely monitoring cipher phones and while he won't say it his commission believes wanted drug lord hakanehik and the comancheros are behind their introduction into australia this is the first time phelan has given a major tv interview up until now your agency has been even more secretive than azio why speak up now from time to time we think it's important that we talk to the public about the threats that the country is facing at this particular point in time australia is facing a very serious threat from serious and organised crime and the vast majority of that organized crime is offshore since 2017 felon and the acic have tirelessly targeted encrypted communication platforms drugs and dirty money to uncover the organized criminals posing the gravest harm to australia these suspected mr bigs are specially designated as a pots australian priority organization targets their identities are a tightly held secret how hard is it to get on the ipot list it is not an easy list to get onto it's a list that really from our point of view has the those that pose the greatest threat to australia to put it simply to get on the apot list you must be the baddest of the bad you've got to be the baddest of the bad and um you've got to really affect the drug trade in australia for the first time we can reveal that there are 16 aipots nine on the list are members of a new criminal organization the acic has dubbed the aussie cartel including hakunaik they are operating offshore they're all the same nationality australian they share supply routes they share logistics supply chains they share amongst themselves the doors or the way in to australia they share any corrupt networks they may have here to swap information into each other what's the aussie cartel making uh we would estimate that they are responsible for about a third of the drug importations into our country you could estimate they're probably making about a billion a year thereabouts we've obtained details of the secret list and we can now name key members in the aussie cartel there's mark butler the dubai-based international commander of the comancheros hell's angels boss angelo pandeli who operates out of greece [Music] in hong kong there's michael too and in the middle east hakan arif muhammad busalay and george deeb at the top of the cartel sits hakanayek calling the shots from turkey is hakan an ipo i won't talk about specifically who is on the airport you can't confirm if hakuna yike is on no i won't confirm that nick michael phelan's discretion is understandable but he is willing to talk about the aussie cartel's corrupt links here in australia including the startling admission that there are rats among our police investigators are you saying the aussie cartel has reached somewhere into law enforcement in australia oh it would be extremely naive of me to think that they didn't are they getting tip-offs um on occasions it would you know it certainly um has crossed my mind that um some of the importations that have gone south as have been have as a result of that but it's difficult to say someone in some agency somewhere is leaking burning your jobs i look i would say it's it's a it's inevitable but those corrupt insider networks are not only government officials but also private sector as well just back on what do you mean government officials what sort of officials oh i'm meaning law enforcement and so on like that absolutely but it's not just suspected dirty cops according to secret intelligence we've been briefed on illicit drugs are being waived through by a huge network of corrupt insiders even qantas has been unwittingly dragged into this criminal activity a national intelligence operation codenamed brunello has found that the commanzer obarkie gang and other crime groups have infiltrated our national airline dozens of qantas employees have been linked to serious drug activity or organized crime is qantas compromised look i i won't talk about some of the individual intelligence we have but we work very closely with qantas i mean qantas are a very large employer in a statement qantas said they follow all vetting procedures and that authorities have not raised these concerns with the company but both qantas and the acic do agree that new laws are needed to target corrupt insiders the aim being to prevent criminals and their associates from ever getting jobs at ports and airports well if those laws aren't passed it'll be right today as we speak there'll be 225 people working on the wharf who have very close links to serious and organised crime who are not convicted of any offences but have very close links to serious and organised crime and are capable of facilitating some of those doors into australia there's no doubt drug mastermind hakane yik has earned his title as australia's most wanted but for a man with millions of dollars to spend ensuring he's never found he's surprisingly sloppy perhaps his arrogance has got the better of him because we tracked him down via clues that he left on the internet there are a lot worse places to hide than in istanbul it's where our search for a yik struck luck late last year when we received a tip off to look at a hair clinic there its owner is fleur messalink who likes to show off exotic overseas holidays and luxury cars on her public instagram page a closer look reveals many of her posts are liked by this private account at hakan a 79 with those clues we asked sources in istanbul to find any public records for hakana yik and fleur messalink turkish records show that fleur messalink is married to a man named hakan reyes who owns the king's cross hotel in istanbul on the hotel's instagram page we find a blurry video showing a man who looks like hakane yik we then captured this remarkable footage inside the hotel that is him we've positively identified or confirmed the man with the shaved head heavyset who we thought might be him that is indeed him and here's the clincher more searching of turkish records shows hakanayik changed his surname to reyes in 2014. reyes in turkish means chief or chairman knowing aik aka reyes is married with two young sons a new name and a hotel business we did a wider online search uncovering new photos of the couple a wedding pick from 2014 in turkey and a family selfie at his wife's birthday party you can see a yik enjoying dinner with close associates including his commentary linked buddy daks naguru it's an extravagant life for a man australia believes is the biggest threat to our nation why on earth are overseas countries giving some of these players safe haven it varies why why some of them have taken up residence in some of those countries some of them have dual citizenship so it makes it very difficult for law enforcement australian law enforcement to operate against these individuals in those countries and it's easy for them to get to those countries we called the king's cross hotel to see if we could speak with the boss can you please tell hakan reyes that i know his real name is hakunaik that i know he's wanted in australia i'd like him to call me to discuss this all right wait and see unsurprisingly we didn't hear back further complicating the hunt for aik we've discovered that he's now renounced his australian citizenship making it harder but not impossible for australian authorities to have him arrested in turkey would you like a country say turkey to hand over an ipod if that's where they're hiding out oh without mentioning any specific countries and i won't but um certainly if some of those individuals are wanted on warrant or that then i'd love if we followed the legal process would be fantastic absolutely you'll be knocking on those doors though we are continually working with the law enforcement partners overseas to be able to make that happen while ayik might think he's untouchable in turkey back in australia our top authorities are ramping up their hunt for him and his associates the commanceros and the aussie cartel are about to be targeted like never before the common shiro is public enemy number one now they are certainly the highest priority uh in terms of the gangs that are around at the moment for law enforcement absolutely you're hunting them absolutely we're hunting them and we make no apology for that it's our main focus will you catch them eventually we'll catch them i want to make it hard for these people to do their business in australia and use all the powers we do and all the powers that we have at our lawful disposal to be able to do and um like i said i don't care about plain fair either hello i'm tom steinfert thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minute segments and full episodes of 60 minutes on ninenow.com.eu as well as the nine now app