Notorious Supermax inmate Bassam Hamzy wields influence through fear and manipulation
NOTORIOUS inmate Bassam Hamzy has spent the past two decades beating the prison system at every opportunity.
NSW
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A CRIMINAL mastermind and a cunning manipulator, Bassam Hamzy has forged a reputation on both smarts and fear.
The Auburn 38-year-old now trades off his name to force others to do what he wants.
The son of a Lebanese army soldier was thrown behind bars for 21 years as an 18-year-old after shooting dead Kris Toumazis outside a nightclub on Oxford St in 1998.
The high school dropout morphed from a drug-abusing street thug to hard-line Islamist in jail after finding religion by listening to Koranic tapes.
He was classified an extreme high-risk inmate and thrown in Goulburn jail’s high-risk management unit in 2002. He was meant to have little contact with other prisoners.
However, he managed to push his radicalised views into the heads of impressionable inmates and had to be moved to Lithgow jail.
It was there in 2008, with a smuggled mobile phone on which he made 400 calls a day, Hamzy was able to operate a multimillion-dollar drug ring on the outside. He also had family members carrying out crimes at his behest, including a drive-by shooting in Victoria.
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“My cousin is just a scary bloke, man. If you don’t do what he says he can send anyone to you,” Hamzy’s cousin and former Brothers 4 Life gangster Omar Ajaj told a psychiatrist in 2015.
Hamzy was moved back to Goulburn’s Supermax prison, banned from speaking Arabic and allegedly managed to smuggle in two other mobile phones.
After encouraging the birth of the Brothers 4 Life street gang in the late 2000s, he used his jail-visiting girlfriend to communicate with the group’s senior players. She would pass on letters on his behalf.
Corrective Services NSW dodged questions about how Hamzy is still able to wield such influence despite his inmate restrictions, citing security and privacy reasons.
“Combating the introduction of contraband into prisons also continues to be a top priority,” a spokeswoman said.
Hamzy is not eligible for parole until 2035.