Hamzy vs Alameddine: Police say ceasefire plea in gang war led to killing

A leading figure in a Sydney underworld crime clan had pleaded with rivals for an end to the violence gripping the city’s west. Then he became the gang war’s latest victim. See how the saga unfolded here.

After getting out of prison, Bilal Hamze approached the rival Alameddine crime crew earlier this year and asked for a ceasefire.

He showed up unarmed and pleaded with the Alameddines for an end to the bloodshed which to that point had claimed the lives of his cousin Mejid, bikie associate Fares Abounader and innocent father Mustafa Naaman — who police believe was likely mistaken for a Hamzy relative.

Underworld figure Bilal Hamze, who was gunned down in an execution-style murder in June.

Haissam Hamzy, unknown person, Ghassan Amoun, Ibrahem Hamze and Tareek Hamzy. Picture: Supplied

Underworld sources say Bilal left the meeting content, believing an understanding had been struck.

But he was very wrong.

On June 17, as he walked out of a Japanese restaurant in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, the 38-year-old was gunned down. After the initial shots, masked men in a stolen car doubled back to ensure the job was done.

As one senior police source said of the failed ceasefire: “Winners don’t give in”.

An affidavit filed in the Supreme Court last year, filed as part of a bid to restrain the movements of the two crime networks, outlined the incidents in 2020 that police believe have contributed to their tit-for-tat feud.

But the reason behind the Alameddines’ refusal to take a backwards step in their feud with the rival family goes back much further than late-2020, when the current spate of violence first rocked the streets of Sydney.

Bassam Hamzy in Goulburn Supermax in 2017.

Mejid Hamzy was murdered near his Condell Park home last October.

The Hamzy organised crime network, under the guidance of its most notorious member Bassam, wreaked havoc on Sydney’s west and southwest for years before the Alameddines took them on.

Under the banner of the Brothers 4 Life gang they ruled the drug trade and commissioned the murders of their enemies throughout the city from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s.

“I think people forget that up until 2016 or 2017, when Brothers 4 Life was a major type of crew in Sydney, they did a lot of f … ed up shit to a lot of people,” one underworld source said.

“Everyone knows the ones who led Brothers 4 Life were the Hamzys. They organised the shootings and murders, extortion and the drug distribution.

“I don’t think people are keeping an open mind about the Hamzys.

“While we can see an active conflict between two families, the Hamzys have a lot of dramas that have been inherited from many years ago.”

CCTV vision showing a prison brawl between Bassam Hamzy and Talal Alameddine inside Goulburn Supermax in October 2018.

For much of the period that Brothers 4 Life ruled the streets, the current generation of Alameddines were either teenagers or very young adults.

Now they are men.

The first example of the Alameddines’ refusal to take a backwards step to the Hamzys came in the form of a fight between each family’s most infamous member in the exercise yard of Goulburn Supermax, Australia’s toughest prison.

The Alameddine name became infamous when Talal, then 22, was convicted of supplying the gun used to shoot dead NSW Police accountant Curtis Cheng.

In the second year of his sentence he came to blows with cell neighbour Bassam Hamzy, with prison CCTV capturing the incredible brawl that left the older criminal battered and bruised.

The brawl is a significant moment in the history of the two families, but is not considered to have led to the current war.

Ibrahem Hamzy and Haissam Hamzy. Picture: Supplied

Ibrahem Hamze leaves the Downing Centre in Sydney last week. Picture: Christian Gilles

On October 14 last year those tensions truly arose, when the Hamzys — still acting like the schoolyard bully — targeted Alameddine associate Shaylin Zreika.

A police affidavit states Ibrahem Hamze, Tareek Hamze and Haysem Hamze, attacked Zreika and stole his mobile phone. No charges were laid over the incident.

On October 16 — two days later — a drug run belonging to the Alameddines was intercepted by the Hamzys, the same affidavit states.

The court documents also outline a presumed retaliatory attack on October 17 when the Auburn Rd home of Maha Hamze and other Hamzy associates, was shot at in a drive-by attack. Maha is not thought to be involved in the feud.

Maha Hamze, whose Auburn Rd home was shot at. She is not thought to be involved in the feud.

Rafat Alameddine.

But October 19 was the day things went to the next level.

The affidavit states that about 12.35am bullets were fired into the home of Rafat Alameddine in a drive-by shooting.

Almost exactly seven hours later at 7.34am, Mejid Hamzy — who was little known to the public but a major underworld figure — walked out the front door of his Condell Park home and straight into a hail of bullets.

In the months that followed the tit-for-tat attacks continued.

The affidavit references another drive-by shooting at Mrs Hamze’s home, the shooting death of innocent father Mustafa Naaman — in an attack police believe may have been intended for Ibrahem Hamze — and multiple shootings at homes linked to the Alameddines.

Ghassan Amoun, who is believed to be one of the next names on the gang war hit list.

On one occasion the home of Rafat and Talal’s brother-in-law Assad Alahmad was shot up, as was their parents‘ neighbours, presumably by mistake.

While there was a major breakthrough for police last week with the arrests of two men over the murder of Mejid Hamzy, the conflict is likely far from over.

As a recent secret police intelligence report detailed, the next names on the hit list are believed to be Ibrahem Hamze and Ghassan Amoun, the brothers of Bilal and Bassam respectively.

Having refused the peace offerings of Bilal Hamze some months ago, much like the feuding Montagues and Capulets in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet — it may be too late before the real cost is realised.