Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle taken into police custody after extradition to Australia

Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle has been taken into police custody after he was secretly extradited to Australia from Turkey.

The nation’s most wanted man was apprehended by Australian Federal Police over alleged drug importation after he touched down in Darwin. 

‘The AFP can confirm it has arrested a man, 37, for allegedly importing more than 160kg of cocaine into Melbourne in May, 2021,’ an AFP spokesperson said. 

‘The man arrived into Darwin after being deported by Turkish authorities and was arrested by the AFP.’ 

He will face court sometime on Tuesday. 

Buddle became leader of the infamous Comanchero gang in 2009 after the former leader, Mahmoud ‘Mick’ Hawi, was jailed for a fatal brawl at Sydney Airport. 

He left Australia for Dubai in 2016 with his glamorous long-time girlfriend Mel Ter Wisscha  and their two children after being named a person of interest in a 2010 armed robbery where a security guard was killed.

Buddle then flitted between a range of countries including Greece, Turkey and Iraq before settling in the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus where he received a residency permit on the grounds his ‘high income’ would bring wealth to the territory.

Australian authorities had been working tirelessly behind the scenes to extradite Buddle from Turkey.

The development comes after a tumultuous few weeks in Europe for Buddle after he was held at gun point and arrested in Turkey on visa violations last month.

After initially receiving a residency permit, authorities later ruled that the his presence was ‘inconvenient in terms of public peace and security’.

Mark Buddle pictured with his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his two kids Mel Ter Wisscha

That led to a top-secret mission involving the National Turkish Coast Guard Command, local police and Interpol agents raiding his hideout.

In the days that followed, it emerged he and Ter Wissa had split up when he moved to Northern Cyprus in July 2021 and she moved to Bodrum and he had a new ‘fake’ wife.

‘I haven’t seen Mark for a year. He’s the father of my children. They see him, I don’t,’ Ms Ter Wisscha told The Daily Telegraph in July

‘I haven’t left Turkey.

‘My kids have gone to and from (Northern Cyprus) but I have stayed away.’ 

Sources also revealed Buddle married a woman called Ozge, a few months after he arrived in Northern Cyprus.

According to the sources, Buddle’s marriage to Ozge – one of his former employees – is ‘fake’ and the pair were living together at one of his three properties in the Iskele area of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, where he was arrested. 

The current whereabouts of Ozge remain unclear.