Comanchero boss Mark Buddle fled Australia after security guard Gary Allibon killed in cash heist

Security guard Gary Allibon was eight months from retirement when he kissed his wife Monica goodbye for the last time and headed off to work at 4.10am on June 7, 2010.

The 59-year-old told Monica he loved her and left a note on the kitchen bench of the couple’s home at Kirrawee in Sydney’s south with the same message, as he often did during their 25-year marriage.

Almost three hours later Monica turned on the television to watch the 7am news and heard a security guard had been shot while delivering cash in the city.

Feeling instantly sick, she somehow knew the man left to die on the footpath after a dawn armed robbery on a Chubb security van was her darling Gary.

Mark Buddle was expelled from Northern Cyprus last weekend and taken to a prison in Turkey from where he might soon be deported to Australia or a third country. He left Australia in 2016 and has spent time in Dubai, Iraq and Lebanon. Buddle is pictured with wife Mel Ter Wisscha

That robbery-turned-murder is the main reason New South Wales police want to talk to self-declared Comanchero ‘commander of the world’ Mark Douglas Buddle.  

Buddle was expelled from Northern Cyprus last weekend and is now in a prison cell in Turkey, from where he might soon be deported to Australia or some other country.

While the 44-year-old has long been suspected of involvement in international drug smuggling, it was the investigation into Gary Allibon’s murder that appears to have led Buddle to flee overseas. 

The execution of Allibon was a senseless crime as brutal as it was unnecessary.

On the day he was killed Allibon had been dropping off cash at a Commonwealth Bank ATM when just after 6am a trio of armed men wearing balaclavas ambushed his crew of three in Sussex Street.

The bandits snatched a cash box containing $300,000 and should have immediately made their getaway in a stolen silver Audi S8 driven by a fourth accomplice.

Gary Allibon (out of picture) had his back turned and his arms raised when one of three armed robbers shot him with a .45 calibre handgun. The shooter then stole the guard’s weapon 

Instead, one of the gunman shot Allibon in the back while the guard had his hands raised, then stole his work-issued firearm in one last indignity.

Allibon, who had done as he was ordered and presented no threat to the robbers, died a short time later at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

The gang escaped with the cash in the Audi, which was captured on CCTV two days later driving in convoy with a black Mercedes C63 on Henry Lawson Drive at Milperra about 10pm.

The Audi was found dumped and incinerated a couple of hours later near Deepwater Park at Milperra, not far from the clubhouse of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang. 

A stolen Audi S8 used in the armed robbery in which Gary Allibon was killed was found burnt out two days later near Deepwater Park at Milperra, not far from the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang’s clubhouse. The incinerated vehicle is pictured

Everything about the cash grab – except Allibon’s shooting – looked like the work of experienced armed robbers, down to the use of stolen high-performance vehicles. 

The Mercedes C63 was never located and neither was a white BMW X6 four-wheel drive which was also linked to the robbery.

Ballistics examinations matched the firearm used to kill Allibon to a drive-by shooting of a house at Vaucluse in the city’s eastern suburbs in November 2007.

The same .45 calibre handgun was also likely used in the shooting of two members from the Notorious gang at Merrylands in western Sydney in March 2010.

Bullet casings found in the burnt-out Audi matched another weapon used in the  western suburbs shooting of drug cook Roy Yaghi at Wentworthville in April 2010.

[Yaghi and his friend Jamie Grover, both Lone Wolf associates, were shot dead in August 2012 in a dispute over drugs]. 

On the fifth anniversary of Allibon’s murder police released CCTV footage taken two days after the crime. The footage showed two men in a Mercedes C63 which was driven behind the Audi getaway car. A month later Mark Buddle tried to fly to Noumea with $60,000 undeclared cash

Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Mark Buddle was involved in any of those crimes, only that he is a person of interest in the Allibon investigation. 

Buddle grew up in public housing at beachside Maroubra in Sydney’s south-east and spent time in juvenile detention. He had played representative rugby league but that career was ended by injury. 

Joining the Comanchero when he was 21, he took control of the club after national president Mahmoud ‘Mick’ Hawi was jailed over the death of Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas at Sydney Airport in March 2009.

Zervas was bludgeoned to death when 12 Comanchero confronted five Hells Angels and Hawi was eventually convicted of manslaughter.

In Hawi’s absence the gang was taken over by Duax Hohepa Ngakuru until he left Australia in 2010 when the crown was seized by the fiercely ambitious Buddle.

Buddle grew up in public housing at beachside Maroubra in Sydney’s south-east and spent time in juvenile detention. He had played representative rugby league but that career was ended by injury. He is pictured when he was commander of the Comanchero in NSW

In the following years Buddle spent time in prison for offences including assault, affray and intentionally causing injury but how and why police became interested in his knowledge – if any – of Allibon’s murder is unclear. 

A coronial inquest held into the shooting in September 2015 recommended the investigation be referred to the unsolved homicide unit of NSW Police.        

Detectives first said they were close to making an arrest over Allibon’s shooting in June 2014 when they stated publicly they knew who had killed him. 

On the eve of the fourth anniversary of Allibon’s death, Detective Superintendent Luke Moore of the Robbery and Serious Crime Squad said Strike Force Lorimer had made a number of significant breakthroughs. 

‘We believe we know who is responsible for this offence and we are very close to being able to charge those people with the offence,’ Moore said at the time.

It was then police revealed the links they had made between the Audi and Yaghi’s first shooting, as well as releasing details of the missing BMW X6 and a silver BMW 5-Series sedan, which was stolen during a car-jacking at Maroubra in July 2009.

Detective Superintendent Moore said detectives still needed ‘little pieces of information’ before they could arrest the suspects and asked the public for help.

He called those involved in the murder ‘well-organised’ and ‘cold-blooded’ and said they were suspected of having links to known organised crime groups. 

A year later in June 2015, ahead of another anniversary, police released CCTV footage showing two men in the Mercedes C63 which was driven behind the getaway Audi two days after the crime.

Both men were likely identifiable to those who know them.  

Detective Acting Superintendent Mick Sheehy issued a reminder there was a $100,000 reward for information that led to the conviction of Allibon’s killers.

Gary and Monica Allibon were married for 25 years and lived at Kirrawee in Sydney’s south. He regularly left love notes around the couple’s home and was just eight months away from retiring 

‘We believe the men in the Mercedes as depicted in the CCTV could assist us greatly with our inquiries into the occupants of the silver Audi, so we are asking anyone who can identify them to come forward,’ he said.

The next month Buddle was pulled off a plane at Newcastle Airport after chartering a flight to Noumea. He was carrying $60,000 in undeclared cash and spent eight weeks in prison.

Buddle legally flew out of the country in 2016 – first to Dubai, then Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Cyprus – and has not returned.

In 2017 he was still asserting authority over the Comanchero in his absence, texting associates: ‘I’m the f***ing commander of the world… no one is to touch another member or set up another chapter without my permission.’ 

Buddle did not come back to Australia for his father’s funeral that year or his mother’s in 2018.     

Buddle did not return to Australia for his father’s funeral in 2017 or his mother’s in 2018. Comanchero sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed is pictured in club colours carrying Buddle’s mother’s coffin. Zahed was shot ten times in May in an ambush that killed his brother Omar

Hawi, who was released from prison in 2015 and left the Comanchero, was shot dead outside a Rockdale gym in Sydney’s south in February 2018. 

Two Lone Wolf members were acquitted of that murder in 2020. One of those men, Yusuf Nazlioglu, was shot dead at Rhodes in the city’s inner-west in June. 

Detectives are interested in what Buddle might know about Hawi’s murder, as well as the execution of gangster Mejid Hamzy at Condell Park in the city’s south-west in October 2020.

Underworld rumour has it that there is a $7million contract on Buddle’s head. 

Less profitable but slightly less risky would be providing information that leads to the conviction of Allibon’s killer and claiming the $1million reward. 

That sum was increased from $100,000 in April 2020 when police announced they were reinvestigating the murder and again asked for the public’s help.  

Buddle took control of the Comanchero in 2010 while national president Mahmoud ‘Mick’ Hawi (above, with wife Carolina Gonzalez) was in jail. Hawi was shot dead while sitting in his Mercedes outside a Sydney gym in 2018

Monica Allibon said she hoped the increased reward would bring new leads to investigators and finally provide justice for her late husband. 

‘There are no words to describe the grief I felt the day Gary died – the grief of losing him and the grief of the loss of our future together,’ she said.

‘That gut-wrenching feeling has yet to subside, and I don’t think it can while his killers continue to live their lives without facing the consequences of their actions.

‘Gary was just months away from retirement and, in addition to our plans for relaxation and holidays, we had the simple dream of growing old together. That was ripped from us with a single bullet fired in greed.

‘Those men robbed the van and took my husband’s life, and the people who know them and what they did are robbing me of answers and justice for Gary.’

Monica Allibon has made regular public appeals for information that could lead to the arrest of those responsible for murdering her husband. She is pictured in 2020 when the reward for such information was increased to $1million

Detective Acting Superintendent Grant Taylor of the Robbery and Serious Crime Squad said the re-investigation was following well-established lines of inquiry.

‘The original Strike Force Lorimer investigators established links between this case and other organised criminal activity, including three shootings, which we are continuing to explore,’ he said.

‘We believe we have a clear picture of the events of the day, and a fair idea of the identities under the balaclavas, but we need the community’s help to bring our case beyond reasonable doubt.

‘Make no mistake, this wasn’t a robbery gone wrong; Gary Allibon had complied with their demands and was executed in cold blood.’ 

The newly appointed national president of the Comanchero is Sydneysider Allan Meehan (right), who was mentored by Buddle (left). Meehan took over after Mark Murray was locked up in Victoria on a murder charge

‘The persons of interest to our investigation vary from those we believe know what happened or who was involved through to those who were there and the man who pulled the trigger.

‘The time for any – or all – of these people to come forward is now. Strike Force Lorimer will get the pieces of information they need, so either way, you’ll be seeing us soon.’

Asked directly about police interest in Buddle, Taylor said: ‘Rest assured that individual you’re talking about is right up there at the top of our equation and our thoughts.’

Anyone with information that may assist Strike Force Lorimer detectives is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au.

Anyone with information about the murder of Gary Allibon is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Mark Buddle is pictured with wife Mel Ter Wisscha