Mejid Hamzy feud: NSW police issue bans to stop gang violence
Police have taken the extraordinary step of releasing maps of the suburbs which named individuals have been prohibited from entering after the Mejid Hamzy killing. SEE THE MAPS
NSW
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Members of two notorious rival Sydney families have been banned from certain suburbs by police in a desperate attempt to prevent a bloody feud erupting on the streets.
Maps were revealed on Tuesday showing where named members and associates of the Hamzy family are banned from going, mainly because they are the home suburbs of their bitter rivals the Alameddines. Likewise, some Alameddine family members and their connections have been ordered not to enter Hamzy territory.
The move by police came after Hamzy family patriarch Mejid Hamzy, 44, was shot dead as he stepped out of his Condell Park townhouse last week. Hamzy was the brother of jailed gang leader Bassam Hamzy.
Detectives now believe the home of Rafat Alameddine was shot up at Merrylands in the days before Hamzy’s death and a possible feud between the two families is one theory being explored by detectives.
Rafat Alameddine was one of 22 people hit with a rarely used Public Safety Order over the weekend, restricting where he can go. There is no suggestion he played any role in Hamzy’s murder.
Hamzy clan members who were also hit with PSOs are forbidden from entering neighbourhoods at Blacktown, Doonside, Rooty Hill, Plumpton and Kings Langley.
Alameddine family members and their associates have been excluded from a much larger footprint of Sydney — from the southwest to the eastern suburbs. The areas include parts of Padstow, Bankstown, Chullora, Lidcombe and Silverwater as well as eastern areas, including Bronte, parts of Clovelly, Sans Souci and Dolls Point.
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Detective Superintendent Robert Critchlow, the boss of the state’s Criminal Groups Squad, approved the orders.
“I’m sure the community are sick of these groups using our streets and our homes as shooting ranges,” Supt Critchlow said.
If police catch members of either side trespassing on enemy ground they face up to five years jail.
Those who happen to live in enemy territory are allowed at their home but need a valid excuse to be outside.
But some of the 72-hour orders had expired by late on Tuesday.
NSW Police and their lawyers are preparing to apply in the courts this week for the orders to be extended, with prosecutors set to argue for even greater restrictions on some of the 22 people currently subject to the orders.
Court-approved orders can go even further than PSOs, giving police power to determine who family members associate with, what phones they use and even who they do their banking with.
Supt Critchlow said until the court orders were obtained, police would continue “going through front doors” using firearms prohibition laws to remind crime figures they are being watched.
LINES DRAWN FOR SYDNEY GANG RIVALS
The lines have literally been drawn, on a map, in Sydney’s bloody underworld war between alleged gang rivals.
Following the daylight execution of senior Hamzy family member Mejid Hamzy at Condell Park on October 18, NSW Police has taken the extraordinary step of releasing maps of the suburbs which named individuals have been prohibited from entering to either associate with each other or confront their enemies.
The rules will be enforced using police powers called Public Safety Orders, authorised by Detective Superintendent Robert Critchlow, the boss of the Criminal Groups Squad.
Heissued 22 of the orders over the weekend to try and subdue any retaliatory attacks for Hamzy’s murder.
A feud between the Alameddine family and Hamzys is one of the lines a police investigation is probing over the death of Hamzy outside his home on October 18.
In the days before Hamzy’s death, the home of Rafat Alameddine was shot up in Merrylands, police have confirmed.
There is no suggestion Rafat Alameddine had any involvement in Hamzy’s murder.
Hamzy family members and associates hit with one of the orders have been forbidden from going to neighbourhoods in Blacktown, Doonside, Rooty Hill, Plumpton and Kings Langley.
Alameddine family members and associates who the orders relate to have been excluded from a much larger footprint of Sydney — from the south west to the eastern suburbs.
The areas include parts of Padstow, Bankstown, Chullora, Lidcombe and Silverwater. And in the east, Bronte, parts of Clovelly, Sans Souci and Dolls Point.
If any of the alleged gang members live in what police consider to be enemy territory, they are allowed to be at their home.
However they cannot roam the streets without a valid excuse or meet with their associates.
Anyone caught in breach of a Public Safety Order can be charged and jailed for up to five years.
The orders only last for 72 hours and are considered an interim measure by police who are frantically now working with their lawyers to get more stringent orders approved through the courts for a number of the 22 people issued Public Safety Orders over the weekend.
The more serious orders can last for five years and give police sweeping powers to control someone’s life, including what phones they use, who they bank with, or where they physically can go.
Det Supt Critchlow today said using the extraordinary power was justified in a time of rampant gangland activity.
“I’m sure the community are sick of these … groups using our streets and our homes as shooting ranges,” he said today.
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“Bullets fired in (the Hamzy murder) could have killed many people. Some of the vehicles in the street belonging to innocent members of the public were penetrated by those bullets including some resting in the head rests of those cars which would have killed the occupants. Other bullets had entered garages of nearby homes.”
Det Supt Critchlow said the 22 orders made over the weekend “prevented people from going to certain parts of Sydney and behaving in a way that threatens the public”.
“They appeared to be quite successful in that the violence was certainly attenuated by the use of those orders.”
It comes as armed officers from the gang-busting Strike Force Raptor have been simultaneously beating down doors to send a warning to known underworld figures and searching properties with suspected links to Hamzy’s murder.
Strike Force Courier, which is investigating Hamzy’s death, has searched Hamzy’s home, a second Condell Park townhouse as well as a property in Merrylands.
POLICE BAN ON 22 TO STOP HAMZY BLOOD FEUD
NSW Police have banned 22 people from attending certain parts of Sydney in the hope of scuppering retaliatory attacks after the suburban shooting of Mejid Hamzy.
The brother of Mohammed Hamzy was shot outside his Condell Park home last Monday with officers concerned about retribution.
NSW Police began a “major disruption operation” which targeted criminal networks in Sydney’s south west.
The operation used members from Strike Force Raptor, Operation Talon, and the North-West metropolitan Support group.
Police issued public safety orders to 22 people which bans them from going to certain areas.
Officers will allege the recipients of the PSOs are linked with the ongoing conflict across Sydney.
Mejid Hamzy, 44, was nowhere near as notorious as his publicity-loving younger brother Bassam Hamzy, but he was quietly one of the major players in Sydney’s criminal underbelly even as he ran a gourmet chocolate and dessert bar.
Police believe that in October 2016, he was one of the killers of Hamad Assaad, 29, who had the word ‘Executioner’ tattooed across his chest. Assaad was linked to the attempted murder of Mejid’s aunt, family matriarch Maha Hamze, 44, who was shot in the legs as she stood at the front door of her home at Auburn Rd, Auburn, in 2013.
Earlier this month, on October 14, Mejid was charged with possessing drugs and was due to appear before Bankstown Local Court on November 4. He beat drug importation charges in 2019.
The crime commission also sought to seize the other duplex Mejid built on the same block which had been rented by underworld figure Safwan Charbaji before he was shot dead in a gunfight outside a Condell Park smash repair business in April 2016. The crime commission was also seizing another house of his in Albert Rd, Auburn, which is rented out. The homes are owned by Mejid ‘s company HZY International Pty Ltd.
The Hamzys are one of Australia’s most feared criminal families and have been linked to the creation of the notorious Brothers 4 Life gang, a bloody gangland war, underground drug rings and a string of grisly shootings.
The family’s criminal ties date back to the 1990s when the late Khaled Hamzy — the father of Mejid and Bassam — was jailed for his role in a sophisticated drug syndicate.
Bassam lived up to the family’s gangster reputation, in 2007 founding the southwest Sydney gang Brothers 4 Life while locked up in jail for the murder of a teenage boy.
Later, he became known as Australia’s most dangerous criminal after standing accused of running a multimillion-dollar drug syndicate from his jail cell — including organising a kidnapping, torture and drive-by shooting.