Sydney gangland war: Darwiche-Razzak feud in true crime podcast
In a new true crime podcast, a former bikie turned journalist Mahmood Fazal has revisited one of Sydney’s most deadly gang wars, delving into the notorious Darwiche-Razzak family war that included a string of murders, kneecappings and shootings.
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At the height of a gangland war 15 years ago, they were some of the most feared and ruthless criminals in Sydney.
Now those responsible for orchestrating one of the bloodiest periods in the city’s underworld history are languishing in jail, filled with regret and warning young men not to repeat their mistakes.
A new podcast to be released on Tuesday by former bikie turned journalist Mahmood Fazal forensically picks apart the notorious Darwiche-Razzak family war that included a string of murders, kneecappings and shootings.
The long-running conflict in the early 2000s infected much of southwest Sydney and changed the way police responded to Middle Eastern organised crime.
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Mr Fazal spent several months interviewing the key players of the conflict, their families, friends, former inmates and hardened detectives in a bid to illustrate the consequences of gang violence.
“My idealistic intention was to confront young people with the reality of a life in crime,” Mr Fazal told The Sunday Telegraph.
“I think being able to dramatise that with Audible in this polished audio documentary format and hearing these guys talk with such tragedy, I hope it does confront them.
“They talk about everything they have lost. It could’ve been any one of us.”
It was Mr Fazal’s past life as a bikie and background growing up in Victoria’s Dandenong that helped him build a rapport with people from both sides.
He said while there might be lingering resentment between the families, they have left the war in the past.
Mr Fazal, who was once the sergeant-at-arms of the Mongols bikie gang, injects his own memories of thuggery into the podcast No Gangsters In Paradise.
“Trying to get in the head of someone who is resigned to a life of crime, it’s really nuanced,” he said.
“I think it takes a particular type of upbringing and personality, a combination of the two. “When I was talking to them, the trust was built on a shared and lived experience.”
One episode includes an interview with Ramzi Aouad, who was sentenced to life in jail for his role in the murders of Ziad Razzak and Mervat Nemra in Greenacre in 2003.
Jailed since his young 20s, Aouad has “completely rehabilitated himself” and become a spiritual leader among the Muslim inmate population.
But he acknowledges the cost of his crimes, particularly the time he has lost with his family.
“When you come to jail young, then you probably don’t spend as much time with your family as you should,” Mr Aouad told the podcast.
“And then when you cop a sentence like this you sit down and say to yourself: ‘Well, hold on, I’m going to be locked up and they are all going to die’.
“And I am not going to spend time with them.”
Mr Fazal said every person he spoke with for the podcast regretted the decisions they had made “and wish they’d been given an alternative perspective”.
“(Ramzi) encourages younger inmates to get back on the straight and narrow,” Mr Fazal said.
“He uses himself as an example of what can happen when you fall off the rails.”
Triple murderer Adnan “Eddie” Darwiche, who struck a deal with police after his murder conviction in 2006 and handed over one of 10 rocket launchers stolen from the defence force, was another story.
He is still a violent person inside Goulburn’s Supermax jail where his only visitors are his wife and children.
According to Mr Fazal, the Razzaks were living quiet lives working in construction in western Sydney while Khaled Taleb, the rollover witness, was living under protection somewhere in Australia.
Mr Fazal conceded some people he tried to interview for the 12-part series didn’t want to reopen old wounds.
Looking at the emergence of gangs in the city’s southwest since this conflict, Mr Fazal said lessons had not been learned.
“The saddest thing about it is the lessons from this huge conflict didn’t really seep into the young people in the community,” he said.
“That’s why there were issues with young people joining groups like the Brothers For Life years later.”
* The podcast will be available for download on Tuesday October 15 from audible.com.au/gangsters
Originally published as Sydney gangland war: Darwiche-Razzak feud in true crime podcast