Ibrahim family home not the only target on Price St, Merrylands
The sound of gunfire woke residents of Price St, Merrylands, on Wednesday night but it was the target, not the sound, that would have seemed unusual.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The clack of gunfire woke residents of Price St, Merrylands on Wednesday night but it was the target, not the sound, which would have seemed unusual.
The Ibrahim family home – where the mother of nightclub boss John, jailed bikie Sam and drug-runner Michael lives – was not under fire. Not this time.
Instead, it was a different two-storey house and police are still unsure if the drive-by shooter even knew who they were aiming at — they do not think it has anything to do with the Ibrahims.
“Detectives began a full investigation but were uncertain whether the shooter had targeted the occupants,” police said.
Just doors away, numerous scenes of bloodshed have unfolded in the past decade at, or immediately outside, the Ibrahim house.
Eldest Ibrahim brother and former Nomad bikie Sam was shot twice, one bullet hitting his leg, as he stood in the driveway in January 2011.
But 2017 was the year of peak Price St mayhem.
Federal police stormed the home — and 27 other properties, on August 8 just as Michael and another Ibrahim brother Fadi were being arrested in Dubai in connection to a major illicit importation scheme.
Fadi is set to face trial over allegedly dealing in the proceeds of crime relating to illegal tobacco. Michael has pleaded guilty to trying to import drugs and tobacco.
Eight days later state police charged back into the house, this time allegedly retrieving a loaded 9mm semiautomatic Beretta handgun, loaded magazines and various calibres of ammunition. There is no suggestion Michael or Fadi had anything to do with the firearms.
On November 17 the same year, Price St was abuzz with suburban wedding plans — John’s nephew Sam Sayour was marrying Aisha Mehajer, the sister of notorious former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer the next day — when gunfire revisited.
Long-time Ibrahim family bodyguard Semi Ngata, who also lived in the street, was shot in the back at 10.45pm after family and friends had spent the afternoon setting up chairs and tables.
Ngata was taken to hospital and survived. The shooter has never been charged.
Against a backdrop of police fears about reprisal attacks, Price St did host the Sayour-Mehajer wedding the very next day.
John Ibrahim grew up in a small fibro house on the same block as his mother’s now-home, which he built for her after she decided she preferred it to the eastern suburbs mansion he once bought her.
