‘Smoking gun’ link between Sydney underworld shootings of Marvin Oraiha and Bol Deng revealed
The same gun allegedly used to kill a young man in an underworld hit was later passed on to other hit men who shot dead an innocent person nine months later, police believe.
NSW
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The same gun allegedly used to kill a young man in an underworld hit was later passed on to other hit men who shot dead an innocent person caught up in escalating gangland tensions, police believe.
Marvin Oraiha, 24, was shot dead at Elizabeth Hills in May 2023 and Bol Deng, 20, gunned down at Fairfield Heights in February 2024 – both victims of Sydney’s ongoing underworld war.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal police have made a forensic breakthrough by ballistically linking the same revolver to being used in the murders of both Oraiha and Deng.
So far detectives have charged Kerim Kurtoglu over involvement in Deng’s murder, alleging he was responsible for the supplying of firearms to the gunmen and the preparation of cars for them to arrive and escape.
There is no suggestion Kurtoglu was responsible for pulling the trigger in either murder, and in fact police are believed to be closing in on Deng’s killers – who one investigator called Mr X and Mr Y.
Police sources said another key breakthrough in the Strike Force Gaul investigation came when the getaway car was not burnt, allowing detectives to gather key evidence left behind.
“That was a major win for the cops,” a senior police source said.
“There’s been some forensic links to that car, which police are following up to identify who is Mr X, the shooter, and Mr Y, the driver.”
Deng was gunned down on February 27, 2024, moments after loading his younger brother into his mother’s car so she could take him to school.
The screams of Deng’s mother, who had just finished a night shift and pulled up on Stella St to do the school run, could be heard on CCTV in the aftermath of the shooting.
Police believe Bol Deng was killed for the alleged role of his older brother Dut Deng as the shooter in the murder of Alen Moradian murder at Bondi Junction in June 2023.
Dut Deng is charged with Moradian’s murder and is awaiting trial in the NSW Supreme Court.
The shootings of Oraiha and Bol Deng are among a series of events that occurred in Sydney’s underworld across 2023 and 2024 as a result of a falling-out between key figures.
Oraiha’s death was the first domino to fall, before Moradian was murdered, and in response, Eric and William Siale were targeted by a gunman in broad daylight at a barber shop in Marrickville on July 7, 2023.
Police sources said it is alleged the attack on the Siales was an attempted “throw off” aimed at suggesting the brothers were involved in Moradian’s death, but investigators do not believe this was the case and there is no suggestion that they were.
More than a dozen people have been charged under Strike Force Orsino – the investigation into the Marrickville shooting – with a variety of different offences, not all over the shooting.
Eight months after the Marrickville shooting, another domino fell, with Bol Deng’s assassination.
In the wake of that murder, there was some brief respite in the underworld, until Torek Ayoub was gunned down in Parramatta.
Police have said publicly that Ayoub had long been a go-to man for murder done in the underworld, earning himself the nickname of “The Angel of Death”.
That was until he himself became the target of gunmen about 3.30am on August 26, 2024.
Two months later, there was another shooting that police believe is linked to the underworld fallout – an attempt on the life of Vailena Koloamatangi at Winston Hills, on October 2, 2024.
That attempt on Koloamatangi’s life saw him shot four times, and was the third time he had been shot at in four years – after surviving a shooting at Merrylands in 2020 and another at Campsie in September 2023.
Koloamatangi is understood to be associated with Kurtoglu – the man charged over Bol Deng’s murder – and both are allegedly closely aligned with the Comanchero OMCG.
Police sources said they believe Koloamatangi developed a target on his back as he rose up the ranks of the criminal milieu over the years.
Dozens of individuals have been charged with offences under the various Strike Forces that have been formed to investigate the shootings of Marvin Oraiha, Alen Moradian, the Siale brothers and Bol Deng.
No charges have yet been laid over Torek Ayoub’s murder.
Police sources said they had been frustrated by the sentences handed down to many of those charged since Sydney’s underworld began in 2020.
“None of these shootings happen without all the players involved,” a police source said.
“It’s a source of frustration when people are hiding behind their legal claims that they don’t know what they’re involved in.
“It’s allowing these organised crime murders and shootings to flourish.”
Originally published as ‘Smoking gun’ link between Sydney underworld shootings of Marvin Oraiha and Bol Deng revealed
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