An alleged crime figure whose dealings with a customs official sparked a significant anti-corruption probe has been secretly flown into the country from Turkey after an international manhunt.
Tony Haddad landed in Darwin early on Friday morning and was taken into federal police custody after he was deported by Turkish authorities.
Haddad was detained at the border of Turkey and Lebanon with a false passport in August, having fled Australia via boat from Darwin to Indonesia in 2020.
Haddad’s return to Australia follows another high-profile deportation from Turkey of alleged crime boss Mark Buddle in August.
The latest extradition will cause significant concerns in the underworld, given multiple senior organised crime figures – including members of the Aussie Cartel – have sought haven in Turkey in recent years in the belief they would be beyond the reach of Australian police.
The Aussie Cartel is made up of a loose partnership of crime bosses and earns an estimated $1.5 billion a year by smuggling drugs with the help of corrupt government officials and border insiders, the nation’s peak criminal intelligence agency claimed last year.
AFP Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan welcomed Turkey's decision to deport Haddad and said federal agents were investigating his activities over the last two years.
Haddad became the subject of a manhunt in March 2020, after he failed to turn up to a NSW court case in which he was facing charges of importing 2.8 tonnes of illegal precursor chemicals from China.
In May this year, the AFP’s Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team (FAST) made a public appeal for information about Haddad, saying his last known location was Sydney and that he could be anywhere in Australia. He fled the country shortly after this press release was issued.
The capture of Haddad follows an extraordinary law enforcement saga that began over a decade ago and involved the arrest of Haddad for importing safrole oil from China in 2011, and the arrest in 2012 and 2013 of four Australian customs officials for helping organised crime gangs import drugs and tobacco into Australia.
Tony Haddad has been extradited from Turkey to face illegal importation charges.Credit:Australian Federal Police
Haddad’s alleged bribery of one of the customs officials helped kickstart an operation by the federal police, codenamed Marca.
That operation led to the arrests of the four officials and wider reform of the customs service, which has since been renamed the Australian Border Force.
Haddad was never charged over the alleged customs bribery scandal, but federal law enforcement officials suspect that he handed over $50,000 to one of the corrupt officers in return for his help facilitating illegal importations into Australia.
Three law enforcement sources speaking on the condition of anonymity said that Haddad was previously sought out by notorious Sydney underworld figures, including the now-deceased Alex “Little Al” Taouil, to use his connections within the customs service to facilitate further importations.
A senior organised crime figure who lives in a mansion in Sydney’s eastern suburbs is suspected to have ordered Haddad to use his border security connection to facilitate the safrole importation.
Police will allege that Haddad played a key role in the safrole oil importations, for which he was due to face charges in March 2020.
His return to Australia comes after years of delays in that court case, caused partly by Haddad’s claim he was too mentally unfit to stand trial.
Haddad has been a low-profile but allegedly highly active member of Sydney’s underworld since the ’90s, when he was first identified by state police as a founding member of Western Sydney’s Telopea Street gang.
More recently, Haddad was linked to the Alameddine crime family. He is suspected to have made millions of dollars buying and selling cars and property, including a purple Rolls Royce formerly owned by radio personality Kyle Sandilands.
He has also undertaken significant investments with now-dead underworld figure Murat Gulasi, who died of a heart attack in a Turkish gym.
Haddad has also generated significant enemies in the underworld, having been shot and stabbed as part of Sydney’s ongoing Middle Eastern gangland war.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
Most Viewed in National
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article
