Body search for missing murdered gangster Raphael Joseph
DETECTIVES believe they know who murdered Sydney gangland figure Raphael Joseph in 2014 and they’re hoping a large-scale search on the city’s outskirts will uncover his remains.
NSW
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DETECTIVES believe they know who murdered Sydney gangland figure Raphael Joseph in 2014 and they’re hoping a large-scale search on the city’s outskirts will uncover his remains.
Homicide detectives are searching a property in the lower Blue Mountains after finding the car missing Sydney Joseph was last seen in before he disappeared four years ago.
Officers are searching the Blaxland Ridge property after identifying the silver Holden Commodore they believe is the vehicle Joseph was travelling in when he vanished in 2014.
Police were searching the property for the body of Joseph, a man who ‘expected to die violently’, and who once wrote a letter to then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice begging authorities not to send him back to Australia because there was a contract on his life from Sydney gang Bronx Boys.
NSW Police say 37-year-old Joseph was likely murdered by drug dealers in March 2014 many years after he claimed to have a $100,000 bounty on his head.
He was last seen getting into the back of a silver Holden Commodore at McDonald’s in Auburn, but exactly what happened after that wasn’t known until a recent breakthrough in the case.
Now, homicide squad Detective Chief Inspector Grant Taylor says investigators are confident they know who killed Joseph almost four years ago. “We have established that Raphael was kidnapped by a drug supply syndicate, taken to a premise, which is known to us, and there he was inevitably murdered,” Det Ch Insp Taylor said today.
“We know very well there were several people involved in this murder, we know who they are, and they can expect a visit from us in the near future.”
Believed to be a founding member of the Assyrian gang DLAST HR and a suspect in a 2002 shooting at a Sefton strip club, Iraqi-born Joseph was dining with friends at The Star on 20 March 2014 when he asked the friends he was dining with to drive him to Auburn McDonalds to “meet someone”.
Arriving at the carpark just after 11pm, he asked his friends to wait half an hour.
He never came back.
His family reported him missing on March 22, with a task force established in the wake of his disappearance.
Det Ch Insp Taylor said investigations showed Joseph was murdered and the Commodore was connected to supplying illicit drugs.
“We believe Mr Joseph trusted the occupants and voluntarily got into the car, and it’s likely he was aware of drug supply activities,” he said.
“From the information we’ve gathered, we believe Mr Joseph was driven from Auburn to another location and murdered.”
Forensics, the bomb squad, the riot squad, PolAir and local officers from the Hawksbury conducted a search on Tuesday morning for Joseph’s body.
“Officers are searching for items relevant to the investigation, and we believe Mr Joseph may have been buried on the property.
Police have also issued a plea for people with more information to come forward.
“We are confident there are people who associated with Mr Joseph and know what happened to him, even if they weren’t there that evening,” he said.
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“While we are following strong lines of inquiry, I would encourage those people to come forward now, as it won’t be long before we come for you,” Det Ch Insp Grant Taylor.
The day that he vanished, Joseph - also known as Rafi Tooma - also visited the home of murdered Hell’s Angel Wayne Schneider.
Schneider, whose body was found naked in a shallow grave in Thailand in 2015, was a friend of Joseph’s, with the pair rising through the ranks of organised crime in Sydney to become major players in international drug syndicates.