Australia’s most wanted criminal caught in Bodrum

MUĞLA

Masood Zakaria, one of the top figures in the Alameddine crime network, which has been waging a blood-soaked war on Sydney’s streets since 2020 and described as the “most wanted man in Australia,” has been caught in the Aegean province of Muğla’s Bodrum district.

Istanbul police received information that Zakaria, wanted by Interpol and for whom the New South Wales state police issued an arrest warrant in 2021 for attempted murder, and on the charges of being a member of a criminal organization and drug smuggling, arrived in the Bodrum district by land from Istanbul.

In the operation of the luxury villa between the Yalıkavak and Geriş neighborhoods in the district, the senior member of the criminal organization was caught.

Zakaria was arrested and sent to a prison in the Bodrum district.

It was stated that Zakaria, whom the Australian media described as “the most wanted criminal in the country,” first got on a fishing boat going to Malaysia in December 2021, then reached Türkiye through Asia, and came to Bodrum by land after arriving at Istanbul.

It was also reported that the Australian Federal Police contacted the Turkish authorities to deport Zakaria.

Zakaria’s spouse Azza Masood was also captured in a police raid in 2021.

She was arrested for forgery of a document while purchasing their house in Greystanes, New South Wales, in 2019, and was sentenced to 12 months of community service, while the couple’s house was also confiscated.