Explained: Why Middle Eastern gangs are feuding over internal rift

Crime gangs behind a string of brazen daylight shootings and the recent attack on a Comanchero member were once part of the same group. Here’s what we know about them.

Violent Middle Eastern crime gangs behind a string of brazen daylight shootings and the recent attack on a Comanchero member were once part of the same group before going to war against each other.

The Courier-Mail can reveal that conflict within the original Brisbane gang led to one of the players splintering off to create his own group, sparking the public retaliation which has led to eight shootings since April.

Comanchero Kyle Leofa.

The groups have now been linked to the shooting of Comanchero member Kyle Leofa, who was dropped off at the Mater Hospital on Monday night with a gunshot wound to his face.

Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham said the two groups were made up of men, predominantly in their early 20s, whose war had no borders.

“These shootings are organised and targeted and are not random attacks,” Superintendent Massingham said at a press conference at the time of the earlier shootings.

“They are involved in the commission of serious offences, some using violence or intimidation, sometimes as we see in open public spaces, and they operate across district boundaries.”

The shootings began on April 23 when a house in Marsden was shot up. The next day, shots were fired in a house at Kuraby.

Over the next few weeks, gunshots were fired between cars, into more houses and in public between Kuraby, Woodridge, Stretton and Calamvale.

A man was also shot in the foot in an incident at his Stretton house on June 26.

Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Police set up Operation Dagobah in August and issued 25 search warrants, resulting in 11 arrests of men aged between 17 years old and 28 following a brawl at a Mount Gravatt Shopping Centre on July 14.

None of these men are alleged to be involved in the shootings.

But The Courier-Mail understands much of the senior hierarchy in both gangs have not been charged with any offences.

On Monday, 25-year-old Kyle Leofa was shot in a carpark at Underwood about 7pm.

Police said their investigations revealed a group of men were filming a video in the carpark of a shopping strip when two cars, one containing Leofa, pulled up.

Leofa was then shot and dropped off at Mater Hospital where he remains in a stable condition.

Kyle Leofa, Comancheros sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed and national president Allan Meehan.

Last month, Leofa was pictured rubbing shoulders with the most senior Comancheros in the country, national president Allan Meehan and national sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed.

Superintendent Massingham said the men in the gangs weren’t blood-related, and did not co-operate with law enforcement.

“There’s a number of options being considered (about motive), but certainly one of the reasons is that there is friction between two groups where retaliation is being taken,” he said.

“A wide range of investigative strategies are currently being used to prevent and disrupt these groups.”