Youssef ‘Gags’ Ahmad to be released from jail as NSW Police fear underworld tensions

NSW Police have moved to ensure a conflict that exploded in 2022 doesn’t reignite with the release of a major Sydney underworld figure from jail.

A major Sydney underworld figure will soon be back out on the streets, with police moving to ensure it does not reignite tensions after months of calm.

Youssef “Gags” Ahmad had his parole revoked in October 2022 after NSW Police told the Federal Court they feared he was in the process of planning an attack on the Comanchero bikie gang.

Ahmad, the court was told, believed the powerful bikie gang was responsible for orchestrating the assassination of his brother Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad in Greenacre in April 2022, six months before his parole for drug offences was revoked.

But with the 35-year-old set to soon be released, it is understood NSW Police are putting plans in place to ensure a conflict that exploded in mid-2022, does not reignite.

“Not a lot has changed since he was locked up, there are still people who harbour a grudge against him,” a police source said.

“But we are aware of the dangers and will have strategies in place to make sure the community is safe.”

Youssef “Gags” Ahmad (centre) – with brothers Yasser (left) and Mahmoud (right) – is due to be released from jail soon, after having his parole revoked in 2022.

Ahmad was first released on parole in 2021 after serving five years behind bars for attempting to import a large amount of cocaine in 2016, before police revoked it.

The Ahmads were once one of the most feared crime families in Sydney, dominating the city’s southwest with their trademarks being drugs and extortion, with brothers Ahmad “Rock” Ahmad currently serving decades in jail over a serious drugs conviction and Yasser Ahmed freed from custody last November after serving his own drug sentence.

But their business has also seen them make enemies.

Older brother Walid “Wally” Ahmad was gunned down outside Bankstown Centro shopping centre in 2016, then “Brownie” was shot dead on his suburban driveway in 2022.

In documents tendered to the Federal Court by NSW Police almost two years ago, detectives claimed intelligence suggested “Gags” was also at “extreme risk of being murdered”.

Heavyweight gangster Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad was shot dead in Greenacre on April 27, 2022.

Little more than two weeks later, his step-nephew Rami Iskander was also shot dead on May 14.

The death of “Brownie” on April 27, 2022, was followed by the assassination of Omar Zahed and wounding of his brother Tarek on May 11, 2022.

Three days later on May 14, 2022, Rami Iskander — the stepson of Yasser — was shot dead.

Some underworld figures suggest Iskander was involved in the shooting of the Zaheds, a claim those close to him have refuted.

While the city’s underworld war exploded in mid-2022 and again in mid-2023, NSW Police have been on top of the problem over the past 12 months with one organised crime murder in that time — the assassination of Bol Deng, a teenager, at Fairfield Heights in February.