How Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim’s Brother’s 4 Life alliance proved fatal
Melbourne crime figure Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim became a target when he linked up with the Sydney-based Brothers for Life gang, according to sources.
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The danger to Melbourne crime figure Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim escalated last year when he linked with the Sydney-based Brothers for Life gang, gangland sources say.
This masthead has been told elements of the Sydney underworld were unhappy at Abdulrahim for joining forces with B4L, run by Middle-Eastern organised crime figure Mohammed “Little Crazy” Hamzy.
Abdulrahim’s survival was already in extreme jeopardy after numerous attempts on his life and repeated warnings from police that heavy criminals were trying to kill him.
There is unverified talk in crime circles that Tuesday’s murder of Abdulrahim in a Preston hotel car park may have been carried out by a team of Sydney contract killers.
Hamzy, released from prison in 2023 after doing time for manslaughter, and Abdulrahim, were snapped together last year on what appeared to be a luxury holiday.
The Sydneysider had been one of the prime figures in the Harbour City’s gangland but it has more recently been dominated by the Alameddine clan and Comanchero bikies.
If Abdulrahim thought hooking up with B4L would protect him and advance his illicit tobacco sector interests, he was wrong.
Three weeks after the Herald Sun revealed the merger, gunmen fired 17 shots at him as he left his house in the early hours.
He was lured out by a second group from the hit team who torched his parents’ vehicles, accurately predicting he would fire up and respond immediately.
Abdulrahim did not need more enemies from interstate.
Exiled Melbourne crime kingpins Kazem Hamad and Ahmed Al Hamza hated him and are suspected to have been behind previous failed bids to eliminate the boxer.
It can also be revealed that Hamad cut off several of his former allies over their association with Abdulrahim in the period before his death.
Abdulrahim, who had a multimillion-dollar contract on his head, was in contact with some of those colourful figures spurned by Hamad in recent weeks.
It is believed photographs of Abdulrahim posing with popular ex-cons that were posted online angered Hamad.
“Kaz wasn’t happy with them because of Abdulrahim being there,’’ a source said.
“They’re nervous.’’
Hamad was deported from a Melbourne jail to Iraq in mid-2023, emerging among Australia’s most feared criminals, a status reinforced by Tuesday’s bloodshed.
“That was a very ruthless message … broad daylight,” one underworld figure said.
“People are talking about the resources Kaz has access to now … incredible.”
Hamad’s wealth and power have been supercharged by monumental failures of government policy.
Police and business figures say huge increases in tobacco tax have pushed swathes of customers to the cut-price product sold by his and other organised crime syndicates.
In Victoria, the hub of the illegal sector, there has been no licensing or enforcement regime to combat those selling smoke illegally imported into Australia.
Authorities including the Australian Border Force were already preoccupied with keeping out cocaine, heroin, meth and an array of other drugs.
Penalties for those who are caught bringing in illicit tobacco are a fraction of those imposed for harder drugs.
Former Mongol Hamad, his cousin Al Hamza and other crime entities now control an estimated 36 per cent of Australia’s total tobacco market, worth $15.5bn in sales.
Both men are out of reach of Australian law enforcement.
Victoria Police investigators probing Abdulrahim’s murder will be tracking how a hit team knew to ambush the boxer at the apartment complex in Preston where he was executed in front of his girlfriend.
Hamad, who was deported to Iraq in 2023, and Al Hamza, are at the top of a list of underworld figures police will be investigating as ordering the hit.
Abdulrahim’s murder was the sixth execution in the past 18 months linked to Melbourne’s emerging gangland war.
Police sources say the killings have involved several crime groups battling for control of Victoria’s drug and tobacco trade or motivated by revenge.
Since August, 2023, professional hit men have killed underworld players Mohammed Keshtiar, Gavin Preston, Robert Issa, Mahmoud Karam, Hawre Sherwani and Abdulrahim.
Sources, both underworld and police, have indicated the killings have been ordered by three to four crime bosses.
Just two of the slayings have resulted in charges to date.
The first paid hit was of Keshtiar, known as ``Afghan Ali’’, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in South Yarra on August 4, 2023.
Keshtiar’s unsolved murder may have been the first in this latest series of fatal shootings.
His death is suspected to have been motivated by control of the illicit tobacco market.
The 53-year-old had survived a previous attempt on his life in 2018, believed ordered by the Comanchero bikie gang.
Like Keshtiar, Preston, 50, was ambushed.
The notorious standover man was sitting looking at his phone at a Keilor cafe when a hit man emerged from a black SUV, firing from close range.
Charges have been laid against two Sydney men who have pleaded not guilty.
It is suspected Preston’s demise came after joining, and potentially falling out with, the Comanchero.
After his release from prison 2023, Preston began muscling in on a trucking business.
Although this may have sparked problems, it is not known yet what motivated his killing.
Just a month later, on October 8, 2023, Robert Issa was also gunned down outside a shopping centre in Craigieburn, also north of the city.
Issa, like Keshtiar, was reportedly involved in the illicit tobacco trade but it also likely a grudge led to his demise.
The four triggermen who opened fire on him as he sat in a car with an associate are yet to be identified.
It was more than a year later that Mahmoud Karam was pumped full of lead on the nature strip outside his Campbellfield home.
Karam’s murder came out of the blue.
The 60-year-old was not a well-known figure in Melbourne’s gangland landscape.
One theory that has been reported is that Mahmoud was owed more than $3 million over illicit tobacco shipments and someone did not want to pay.
More infamous was triggerman Hawre Sherwani.
Known as “Harry the Como’’, Sherwani was a hit man until he exited the Comancheros and became the hunted.
Sherwani survived one attempt on his life in early 2023, but his enemies caught up with him on January 9 this year.
The hit men, dressed as police officers, pulled him over in Caroline Springs, a suburb north of Melbourne, before blasting him with bullets.
CCTV shows the wounded man knocking on the door of a house before collapsing.
Issa and Sherwani were friends and both may have upset powerful brothers who have emerged as serious contenders in Melbourne’s warring crime groups.
Sherwani was also hated by Ahmed Al Hamza, whom he is suspected of shooting in 2016.
Al Hamza and Hamad were not the only figures to loathe Abdulrahim.
Preston and his mate, Nabil Maghnie, would have been interested in killing him had they not already been dead.
Then, as if to tempt fate, Abdulrahim and his sworn enemy, Hamad, traded barbs over an international phone call thought to have occurred shortly before his murder.
Abdulrahim did not mince his words, calling another man on the phone call, a ``little bitch’’.
Hits like these cause reverberations in the underworld
On Tuesday, gangsters known to Abdulrahim met to chat.
Among the key topics would have been, who’s next?
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