If you were planning to murder a major Sydney underworld figure, where would you start? Find out how those allegedly involved in the murder of Comanchero bikie boss Alen Moradian pulled it off with our scrollable interactive.
On the morning Alen Moradian was killed, police allege those responsible for orchestrating it went to one website to hear if their plot had worked.
“I’ve refreshed The Daily Telegraph a few times, let me tell ya,” an accused allegedly said, according to court documents.
From the moment news of Moradian’s death broke, Sydney’s underworld has never been the same.
A convicted cocaine importer, feared Comanchero bikie gang member and more recently a key figure in creating ‘The Commission’ drug cartel, Moradian was thought to be one of the last gangsters anyone would be planning to take out.
But as the families of multiple innocent victims can attest, there are no rules in this gang war.
Now, never before heard allegations of how police say those accused of planning and carrying out the hit went about their business can be revealed – at the same time, key moments are recreated in 4D, starting with the chilling events of June 27, 2023.
INSIDE THE MORADIAN HIT
If you were planning to murder a major Sydney underworld figure, where would you start?
For those allegedly involved in the murder of Comanchero bikie Alen Moradian, police say the first thing they did was visit www.amazon.com.
Police allege three LandAirSea GPS trackers were bought for a total of $89.99 as the first step in the hit which shocked the underworld.
Once the trackers were delivered, it is alleged online accounts were set up with LandAirSea.
After choosing usernames including “Michael69” and “SaraLee”, and putting in a mobile phone number, it is claimed those in possession of the GPS trackers could follow their movements.
The reason the trackers were needed at all was that those who allegedly wanted to kill Alen Moradian had no idea where he was living, police state in court documents.
Since late-2022, when he was told by NSW Police that a separate contract had been taken out on his life, Moradian had been in hiding.
According to court documents, police allege some of Moradian’s closest associates were the ones behind his assassination – that included a man who must be referred to as AA, due to a court order.
It will be alleged at trial AA believed the trackers were the best way to lead them to Moradian’s safe house.
But having no idea where he was living, they needed to find someone else who could lead them to him – so they allegedly focused on his wife, Natasha Moradian.
Court documents detail how AA allegedly spoke with his associate about addresses regularly visited by Mrs Moradian, including both personal and work addresses.
“AA’s team had outsourced the locating and tracking of the Moradian’s with their main objective being locating N[atasha] Moradian,” the documents state.
Two of the alleged foot soldiers accused of working under AA were Chom Chom and Majok Deng.
These two men were allegedly given multiple responsibilities, including finding Mrs Moradian and subsequently her gangster husband.
But as the days passed there continued to be no sign of Moradian.
In an alleged conversation with an associate detailed in court documents, AA said he was “worried about the whole thing”.
“These c**ts are probably sitting in a garage playing PlayStation, [it will] f**king never get done,” he allegedly said.
It was early June 2023, and another week passed without locating Moradian, allegedly resulting in AA reaching out to other parties for help.
One of them is alleged to be Ninos Georges, better known by his nickname “Frogger”.
Police allege that Mr Georges innocently provided an address for Mrs Moradian’s mother, which AA passed on to his foot soldiers – in the hope that she would visit, at which point they could put a tracker on her car.
“Cause she only goes to her mum’s once or twice a week now she will lead us to him, you know,” AA allegedly said.
“Is that the umay’s [Mum’s address]?” an associate replied.
“Yep, you wouldn’t believe who helped … Frogger,” AA allegedly said.
While Mr Georges is named in court documents, he has not been charged by police and there is no allegation of any illegal activity or wrongdoing on his behalf.
Police allege that at 12.03am on June 24, 2023, the luxury Bentley driven by Mrs Moradian was found by AA’s foot soldiers sitting parked on the street outside her mother’s home.
The GPS tracker was allegedly placed underneath the car, before the foot soldiers fled.
As she drove back to the secret residence in Bondi Junction the next morning, Mrs Moradian had no idea she was leading the would-be assassins straight back to her husband.
With the location of Moradian’s hide-out now known, police allege AA’s team moved onto the next phase of the assassination plot.
That allegedly involved Majok Deng and Chom Chom putting the getaway cars in place for use after the Moradian hit.
Deng and Chom allegedly drove to Brooks St in Guildford and met another associate, before going on to Mount Pritchard where a stolen Porsche Cayenne SUV fitted with cloned number plates was allegedly waiting for them.
Police allege this car would end up being used as the getaway vehicle after Moradian’s shooting.
By this stage the tracker on Mrs Moradian’s car had stopped moving on Queen St in Bondi Junction, court documents state AA allegedly called an associate and told him: “It’s it, it’s it, it has to be”.
On the night of June 25, police allege Deng and Chom drove to the Bondi Junction block.
Both allegedly wearing yellow gloves, they walked through the below ground carpark with hoods over their heads – but nothing covering their faces.
Chom allegedly filmed Mrs Moradian’s black Bentley parked in the carpark, before putting a second LandAirSea GPS tracker on the vehicle.
The two accused then left the carpark, with their role in the alleged plot essentially done.
The next foot soldiers to have a role allegedly included a young man called Dut Deng, who in the early hours of June 26 allegedly drove a red Holden Cruze sedan from Auburn to outside Moradian’s building in Bondi Junction.
Police allege that Dut and his co-accused – who cannot be named – had with them in that car “murder phones”, the name detectives gave to phones used solely for the carrying out of the crime.
The men’s personal devices were allegedly left at home, police say in a bid to conceal their real movements.
On the evening of June 26, police claim the two men drove back to Sydney’s eastern suburbs, parking the red Holden Cruze they were in on James St in Waverley and then getting into the stolen Porsche Cayenne SUV that had been sitting in wait since allegedly being parked by their fellow accused foot soldiers – Majok Deng and Chom Chom.
Once in the Porsche, Dut and the other man allegedly drove to Moradian’s unit block.
They allegedly followed another car into the carpark, before leaving a short time later, only to then return to the carpark for a second time.
Court documents state that at 7.35pm the two men allegedly took the two LandAirSea GPS trackers off Mrs Moradian’s car, before getting back into their own vehicle parked nearby – with a clear view of her husband’s Audi R6 sedan.
Then, allegedly, they waited … for some 12-and-a-half hours.
At 8.11am the next morning – now June 27 – Alen Moradian walked out of the building lift into the underground carpark and got into his Audi.
As he did so, the Porsche Cayenne SUV allegedly crept up from its nearby parking spot.
Dut allegedly jumped out of the car and ran up to Moradian’s driver’s side window, opening fire with a number of shots and killing the crime kingpin instantly.
After speeding out of the underground carpark, police allege the two co-accused drove back to James St.
There they hopped out of the Porsche, with Dut allegedly responsible for pouring petrol out of a jerry can through the vehicle before setting it alight.
As he did so, he shut the door of the vehicle and then ran to the Holden where the other man was waiting, police claim in the court documents.
What the pair allegedly did not realise as they sped away from where they had dumped the Porsche, was that because Dut had allegedly shut the car door behind him, he starved the fire of oxygen to burn.
“You need to have the windows down, they f**ked that, they haven’t burnt cars before,” AA allegedly said in the aftermath, according to court documents.
The men allegedly took the Holden to Zetland, where they successfully set it on fire, before driving in a Toyota Camry to Picnic Point where their associate Chom had been waiting for them since 4am.
AA’s foot soldiers were now allegedly in the final stages of the assassination plan.
All that was left was to set the Toyota Camry alight in the national park picnic spot and then drive home.
But as the trio poured petrol throughout the Toyota, park rangers drove towards them, allegedly spooking Dut, his co-accused and Chom, who all immediately left the scene.
Taskforce Magnus would arrest all three men, plus AA and AB, and several other underworld figures in the months that followed, over their alleged involvement in the killing of Alen Moradian.
The men all remain before the courts.
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