‘Airtasker for crooks’: Contract killings becoming big business

The drone buzzed in the warm spring air, hovering outside Forbes Street Studios, in the inner Sydney suburb of Woolloomooloo last September.

Inside, and blissfully unaware, were the members of OneFour – Jerome ‘J-Emz’ Misa, Spencer “Spenny” Magalogo, Dahcell “Celly” Ramos and Salec “Lekks” Su’a – a rap group from Sydney’s west known for their lyrics about life in the city’s most disadvantaged spots.

NSW police arrest a man (left) in January over an alleged plot to kill members of the rap group OneFour (right).Credit: NSW Police, supplied

The drone was deployed not by crazed fans or paparazzi, nor the group itself making content for social media.

Rather, the drone was allegedly deployed by a criminal syndicate contracted to kill any of the rappers, but particularly the group’s frontman, Misa in an example of what has become a growing concern in Sydney’s underworld – contract killings.

Jerome Misa, AKA J Emz Credit: James Brickwood

Previously, forces in Sydney’s underworld, like the notorious Brothers 4 Life gang, would commit their own violence and do their own enforcing. However, looking to limit their liability and concentrate their efforts on Sydney’s lucrative drug market, the contemporary organised crime network is now outsourcing in what has been branded “Airtasker for crooks” by senior police.

As darkness fell on the September evening, the drone was deployed by three men outside to attempt to watch the rappers through the studio’s window.

It was the third attempt in as many days to surveil the rap group, court documents outlining the police case obtained by the Herald say.

Organised crime detectives allege that a plan to kill OneFour was well advanced when detectives caught wind of it in February.

An investigator combing through a seized mobile phone allegedly found details of the drone surveillance and plans to impersonate cops at a traffic stop then execute the band.

“In the last 12 months, in particular, we’ve uncovered evidence [of contracted violence],” Criminal Organisations Directorate’s Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Weinstein, a 29-year veteran of the force with over a decade in the high-profile State Crime Command, told The Sun-Herald in an exclusive interview.

His signature is on most warrants in the fight against organised crime.

“[The main groups] are more interested now in money laundering and controlling the top end of the criminality of the group. So they will outsource parts of the control mechanisms around that to other groups who only do that part of a business,” said Weinstein.

“They are essentially the labour market, muscle for hire.”

Groups that were once limited to the prison system are now working together on the outside to break knees, kidnap or murder – for a fee.

Alleged contract hits in Sydney’s underworld tend to follow a pattern – cars are stolen, up to 12 months in advance, and sold to a criminal car broker then stored. In the leadup to a hit, at least one car is parked in a street close to the target; another is used to drop a hired gunman to the proposed venue for the attack. Typically, the cars are then doused in bleach or petrol, then set on fire.

The alleged attempt to kill OneFour is believed to be one of a number of high-profile alleged contract killings that have rocked Sydney over the past few years.

Task Force Magnus detectives have charged three men, including Deng Dut, right, for their alleged involvement in the criminal enterprise responsible for the fatal shooting of Alen Moradian, left.

A triggerman, a surveillance man and a getaway driver are among those allegedly hired to execute Bondi drug lord Alen Moradien in June 2023.

Moradien’s close friend Andre Kallita narrowly avoided the same fate in January this year when police swooped on a group of men allegedly plotting to murder him for a $600,000 payday.

Enforcers can command from around $50,000 for an act of violence to more than $1 million for a murder, police intelligence says.

Police say the alleged mastermind of the OneFour plot, Anthony Pele, texted: “We’ve got good $ for this dog dead,” in the leadup to the alleged attack.

Police allege Pele, Brendan Masaeuli, Charlton Schaafhausen, Yousef Rima and a fifth, unknown person took on “contract work” from a criminal group to kill the rappers.

“There are a number of motives we’re looking at, but it’s highly likely there’s a conflict between the organised crime group that took out this [alleged] contract and the intended victims,” Organised Crime Squad boss Detective Superintendent Peter Faux told reporters at the time of the arrests in January.

Documents obtained by the Herald allege the unknown person texted the other four in a group chat on September 7 last year saying: “We need a Mounty boy dead. And dead ASAP!”

The next day the unknown person sent another text. “I know [youse] don’t care. Once job done, payment next day”.

The alleged would-be killers had firearms, stolen “homework cars” used for surveillance, bottles of bleach to remove DNA, cloned numberplates and jerry cans filled with accelerants, the documents alleges.

“It’s the methodology they have been using in the last probably a year and a half, two years around,” Weinstein said.

“We see stolen motor vehicles that are then torched, they use cloned number plates.”

Last week, organised crime investigators seized eight stolen cars from Fairfield East. The vehicles, which ranged from a well-used Toyota Corolla to a Mercedes-Benz X-Class, were “primed for serious crime activities including murders and shootings”, police said in a media release.

As the way violence is done in Sydney’s underworld changes, so too has the police response.

Previously the homicide squad and local detectives would investigate a fatal shooting; now, police have squads of 30 detectives from various specialties that are deployed as soon as a suspected organised crime murder takes place.

Police are now laying heavier charges – murder, rather than accessory before or after the fact of murder – with heavier penalties on everyone involved in a hit.

“We’re certainly taking that stronger standpoint when we’re laying the indictments and the Crown at this stage is very supportive of that,” Weinstein said.

The delay in the court system means that nobody accused of a contract killing has been convicted as yet.

Three of the men who allegedly attempted to kill OneFour -Masaeuli, Schaafhausen and Rime - have all been charged over the alleged murder conspiracy and remain before the courts. None have entered a plea. Pele is overseas, with a warrant out for his arrest, but business in the Sydney underworld goes on – there’s money to be made in murder.

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