From gangsters' paradise to police sting. How Istanbul turned on Australia's fugitives
Masood Zakaria's deportation from Türkiye was akin to "a kidnapping" by the AFP, according to his lawyers. (ABC News: Sharon Gordon)
A secret series of police intelligence reports and internal emails have unravelled the inner workings of Australia's most wanted alleged criminals on the run in Istanbul.
The documents offer a never-before-seen insight into some of the most notorious underworld figures believed by police to be running Sydney's drug trade from overseas.
They have emerged as part of a wide-ranging subpoena by alleged crime boss Masood Zakaria to police, who is arguing his 2023 deportation to Australia from Türkiye was illegal.
In the space of two years, Mr Zakaria went from a maritime stowaway fugitive to one of the highest-profile Australian Federal Police (AFP) captures in recent memory.
Masood Zakaria's return to Australia was seen as a win for the AFP. How he was deported is now facing scrutiny. (ABC News)
The alleged Sydney crime boss is believed to have made an audacious escape from Australia in December 2021.
The most consistent theory outlined by police in the documents is that Mr Zakaria was able to flee the country for Asia on a fishing vessel from either Queensland or Western Australia.
A few days before he fled, arrest warrants had been issued charging the man police claim is a senior figure within the Alameddine crime family with two counts of murder.
Salim Hamze, 18, (right) and father Toufik Hamze who were gunned down in Guildford in 2021. (Supplied)
The warrants were for the fatal shooting of Salim and Toufik Hamze at the height of the gangland war between the Alameddine and Hamzy families in 2021.
Mr Zakaria will fight those charges at trial.
What followed next, his year on the run, has been subject to speculation in both law enforcement and underworld circles.
But the ABC can now chart how Mr Zakaria was reportedly spotted in Jordan and allegedly mingled with organised crime figures in Istanbul before his sensational arrest in a seaside villa.
Mr Zakaria, now back in Australia, is fighting to have his charges permanently stayed, arguing his deportation back to Sydney was akin to "a kidnapping" by the AFP.
The 'Aussie Cartel'
Hakan Ayik, while in Türkiye, became Australia's most wanted man after an AFP sting unmasked him as a drug importing mastermind. (Supplied)
Istanbul has long served as a base for some of Australia's most notorious criminals.
Hakan Ayik, his cousin Hakan "Little Hux" Arif and Melbourne bikie Hasan Topal were established members of what has been dubbed the "Aussie Cartel" based in the Turkish city, some for more than a decade.
The trio have been accused by Turkish police of major drug importations to Australia from their hideaway after emerging from local chapters of the powerful Comanchero bikie gang.
Alleged drug lord Ayik spent more than a decade on the run before he was apprehended. (Facebook)
Police documents said the "Aussie Cartel" had been running a billion-dollar global drug empire from overseas, controlling the narcotics trade in Australia and beyond.
Once Australia's most wanted man, Ayik gained notoriety as the "Facebook bikie" after posting glamorous pictures while on the run from Australian law enforcement.
That was before the AFP duped him into supplying police-bugged phones to the underworld and his subsequent arrest by Turkish police on drugs and money laundering offences.
His cousin Hakan Arif is a former Comanchero member also arrested by Turkish police, accused of overseeing drug shipments across the world.
Turkish police arresting Sydney organised crime figure Hakan Arif in Istanbul in 2023.
In 2017, he avoided extradition back to Australia from Dubai on drugs charges on a legal technicality.
Arif was also netted in the same Turkish police operation that took down Ayik in 2023.
Both have been accused by law enforcement of being central figures in the "Aussie Cartel".
A summer in Bodrum
Istanbul had become the favoured hideout of Australian criminals due to Türkiye's policy of not extraditing its own nationals and its straightforward path to citizenship.
Not long after Mr Zakaria arrived in the country, intelligence began making its way to the powerful NSW Crime Commission.
He has not been accused of committing any crimes while in Türkiye.
The seaside village of Bodrum, where Mr Zakaria and other Australian crime figures spent the summer of 2022. (Unsplash: Mert Kahveci)
According to one information report from the agency filed to the Supreme Court as part of the challenge to his extradition, Mr Zakaria was spotted in the company of the "Aussie Cartel".
The information was categorised as "usually reliable" and "possibly true".
"Masood Zakaria was observed in Turkey in the company of Little Hux [Arif]. It is assumed the sighting of Masood Zakaria and Hakan Arif occurred recently in Istanbul," it stated.
"A number of Australian organised crime identities will travel to Bodrum for the Turkish summer. It is assumed that this will include Masood Zakaria and Hakan Arif."
One source, who requested anonymity, told the ABC the group and Mr Zakaria were often seen inside Ayik's Kings Cross Hotel watching UFC fights.
Money laundering scam and the 'Merrylands crew'
One bizarre tale to emerge from Mr Zakaria's pursuit of documents in the Supreme Court centres around Hakan Arif, who fled Australia in 2014.
In documents that emerged from the legal challenge, police intelligence showed that it was likely Hakan Arif led Turkish police to Mr Zakaria.
In one information report from the NSW Crime Commission, it sources reported Mr Zakaria had come into contact with the man nicknamed "Little Hux".
Sydney underworld figure Murat Gulasi, who died inside an Istanbul gym while spending time with other Australian gangsters in Türkiye. (Supplied)
The document filed by the agency in 2022 detailed how Mr Zakaria recovered a sum of money for his friend Murat Gulasi from Hakan Arif.
"Later in 2022, Hakan Arif claimed to have access to a method to 'clean' the proceeds of crime in Turkey and offered Masood Zakaria the opportunity to employ the method," the document stated.
"Masood Zakaria provided Hakan Arif with [redacted] and the 'Merrylands crew' provided Hakan Arif with a further [redacted]."
References to the Merrylands crew is likely Sydney's feared Alameddine crime family, led by exiled gangster Rafat Alameddine in Lebanon, the report claimed.
"Hakan Arif did not have access to any such method to launder the proceeds of crime but created the story as a means to gain access to, and steal, the funds," the report said.
The same document stated Mr Arif: "Then provided information to Turkish authorities that resulted in Masood Zakaria's arrest and subsequent detention in Turkey."
Mr Zakaria and 17 other Australians, including Sydney lawyer Sylvan Singh, were apprehended in the village of Mugla by local police, according to court documents.
Mr Singh survived a shooting in May 2025 that claimed the life of Mr Zakaria's brother Dawood at Granville.
Sydney solicitor Sylvan Singh, who in police documents was named as an allege member of the gang "KVT". (Supplied)
The solicitor was later charged with allegedly kidnapping and torturing a man and large-scale drug supply offences.
He denies all allegations.
The tranche of emails revealed in court detail how police considered Mr Singh a member of the KVT — a Western Sydney gang consisting of Fijian Australians.
At Mr Singh's previous bail hearing last year, a court heard how he was "removed" from Türkiye after his visa was cancelled the same day Mr Zakaria was apprehended there.
The escape and the capture
Two days before Mr Zakaria was set to be arrested by the NSW Police on December 15, 2021, he vanished.
What happened has never been confirmed, but internally, NSW Police had a theory.
Mr Zakaria was one of several alleged Alameddine crime figures who avoided capture that day in what police were anticipating would be a series of "large scale arrests" targeting the network.
The quiet Turkish town of Mugla, where Masood Zakaria and more than a dozen Australians were apprehended by police in early 2023. (Wikimedia Commons: Alisan Senyuz)
The Alameddines, according to an email by the force's head of Organised Crime Directorate, Grant Taylor, tendered as part of Mr Zakaria's subpoena of law enforcement, had help from "trusted insiders".
"It is now clear that Zakaria was provided sensitive information about his impending arrest by corrupt official/s," he wrote to an AFP colleague.
Stowing away on what police believe was a fishing vessel, Mr Zakaria crossed into Türkiye by land on an Afghani passport months later.
Another report from the NSW Crime Commission unearthed in Mr Zakaria's subpoena detailed how he was spotted in Jordan with the wife and child of another Australian crime figure.
Eventually captured with a dozen other Alameddine figures in Mugla in January 2023, the documents show the frantic efforts to get him home — an extradition now facing scrutiny by the court system.
"They're trying to collect money from associates to pay off the police," one AFP officer wrote in an email.
"Are you able to confirm if Zakaria has been arrested? Thought it might be worth making inquiries with the Turks to avoid anything shonky being done by the locals."