Mick Hawi subject of assassination discussion nine years ago
THURSDAY was not the first time a plot has been hatched to assassinate one-time bikie boss Mick Hawi. It was the nature of the world in which Hawi, who went from a teenage tradie with a small-time marijuana run to bikie leader in a few years, travelled.
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THURSDAY was not the first time a plot had been hatched to assassinate Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi, the former national president of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang.
In June 2009 two inmates of Broken Hill prison — one a high-profile Middle Eastern underworld figure who can’t legally be named, and his underling — discussed the cost of ordering a hit on Hawi and his school friend Daux Ngakuru, the gang’s sergeant-at-arms.
Court documents detail the conversation between the two men about the potential assassination.
“F ..., it’s pretty full on, ordering hits on people,” the underling said.
“It’s not something that goes on a lot, but it does. I know people that do these types of jobs but they charge 300 grand a hit.”
The underworld figure disagreed.
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“That’s a rip-off but I wish I knew that six months ago because I put a contract out to kill Mick Hawi and Daux for 500 grand but I couldn’t get anyone at the time,” he said.
“But that’s too much anyway — the going rate is 100 grand.”
It was the nature of the world in which Hawi, who went from a teenage tradie with a small-time marijuana run to bikie leader in a few years, travelled.
The 37-year-old Beirut-born convicted killer rose through the ranks of the once-feared Comanchero club to take the helm by the age of 22.
He died on Thursday sitting in his Mercedes 4WD in the carpark of the Fitness First gym in Rockdale.
Unlike the hot-headed gangsters he led, Hawi was streetwise and had outwardly civil relations with police.
“He was always very respectful towards us,” said one officer, who’d had several dealings with Hawi while stationed at the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad, particularly at the height of the Comanchero’s war with rival Hells Angels in 2008.
Former police assistant commissioner Ken McKay remembers first dealing with Hawi when his gang moved into Brighton-Le-Sands, an arrival that sparked a turf war.
“Back in that day, there was a movement from Middle Eastern identities to align with the bikies. The sole reason was to have a workforce and stake claim in an area,” he said.
“On the surface he was OK to deal with. We could talk to him but whether he listened or not was another issue.”
At least in one case, Hawi listened.
In December 2007, one of his club members, Joshua Johns, pulled a gun on three police officers during a routine stop on the M5 motorway at Bexley. A chase ensued but Johns escaped.
To track him down, police called Hawi and summoned him to a meeting at Brighton-Le-Sands, where negotiations ensued.
Police made it clear that if Johns wasn’t handed over, Comancheros across the state would suffer. Days later, Johns walked into Hurstville Police Station with a lawyer. Hawi was also at his side.
His reign began to unravel as soon as he picked up a bollard inside Sydney Airport on March, 22, 2009, during a wild brawl with rival bikies and played a pivotal and brutal role in the killing of Hells Angels bikie Anthony Zervas.
Hawi was convicted of murder two years later, only to have the conviction overturned and the charge downgraded to manslaughter in 2014.
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He was granted parole in May 2015.
But by then he had lost his top spot at the club to current and self-appointed Comanchero national president Mark Buddle, who is believed to be in the Middle East.
Once-loyal club members who stood by his side during the airport brawl began to turn on him.
The disgruntled bikies were infuriated Hawi had attempted to shift the blame over the airport brawl death to others, sources say.
Hawi had promised his wife, Carolina, he wouldn’t go back to the outlaw club. But, even though he barely got a mention in recent police intelligence reports, police sources say that at the time of his bloody death he had clearly reconnected with his former bikie associates.