ONE of Australia's most wanted crime figures,
Comanchero bikie drug supplier Hakan Ayik, is suspected by authorities of
setting up a ''super'' drug laboratory in India capable of exporting tonnes of
methamphetamine around the world.
The lab
was investigated by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Australian and
Indian authorities in 2010. The agencies suspect it was designed to facilitate
industrial-scale illicit drug production.
It is
the second recent example of Australian bikie groups setting up operating hubs
in south Asia - where the precursor chemicals needed to make amphetamines can
be legally sourced in large quantities - in order to facilitate crime.
Law
enforcement officials also believe that one of Melbourne's most notorious
organised crime bosses - who is associated with the Black Uhlans outlaw
motorcycle gang - has established ties with figures in Pakistan, including a
senior government official, as part of plans to conduct drug importations or
engage in money laundering.
The
links in Pakistan also give associates of the crime figure access to lucrative
Pakistani government contracts.
The
revelation of the expansion into south Asia of local bikie outfits provides an
insight into the increasingly transnational nature of Australian crime groups
and the challenges facing police in combating them.
It
comes as the Gillard government pushes for uniform anti-bikie laws to be
introduced across Australia in a move that is likely to trigger resistance from
bikie clubs and civil libertarians.
Last
week, Victoria Police acting Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer warned that
Australian bikie clubs were expanding aggressively overseas, including in
Spain, Thailand and Indonesia.
It is
believed the US Drug Enforcement Agency and Indian authorities gathered
intelligence revealing that Ayik had travelled in early 2010 to India, where he
sought to buy an industrial pharmaceutical factory able to produce half a tonne
of methamphetamine every week.
He is
also suspected of having sourced from Indian suppliers large amounts of
precursor chemicals that could be used to make a multimillion-dollar shipment
of methamphetamine.
About
the same time as he was preparing to launch his Indian venture, Ayik sent a
message on a Korean internet dating site that stated that he had travelled from
Hong Kong to India ''on a business trip''.
A
source close to the US agency said it was believed that Ayik, 33, was
associating with a roving international crew of criminal associates engaged in
large-scale drug production and trafficking from India.
Ayik
was thought by Indian police and US officials to have plans to move the drugs
by boat across Asia and into Australia, where they would have been distributed
by the Comancheros and other bikie groups.
By the
time Indian authorities swooped on runners for the crime syndicate in August
2010 - arresting six Iranian chemists and a Dutch national - Ayik had fled.
Senior
Mumbai police official Yashodhan Wanage told an Indian newspaper six months ago
that ''these meth lab busts have proven beyond a doubt that international
cartels are operating in India. All the methamphetamine seized has been for
export only.''
Ayik,
who is on the run overseas, is the subject of an outstanding Australian police
arrest warrant over his suspected involvement in the importation into Australia
in July 2010 of 220 kilograms of heroin.
The New
South Wales police describe him as one of their most wanted suspects.
In his
absence, Australian authorities have been quietly moving to seize his assets.
Late last year, the NSW Crime Commission went to court to seize Ayik's
Harley-Davidson, his apartment in Sydney's Chinatown and his shareholdings in
several companies.
Ayik's
role in the Indian venture was uncovered during research for a new book on
organised crime in Australia, The Sting, which is published by Melbourne
University Press.
Nick
McKenzie and Richard Baker
smh.com.au
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