Pasquale Barbaro: Fly in, fly out hitmen raise Sydney’s underworld war body count

DETECTIVES are examining whether Aussie bikies living overseas have ordered some of the recent Sydney underworld assassinations while in exile.

Sydney’s gangland war body count continues to climb.

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THE police strike force set up to ­investigate recent underworld slayings in Sydney is examining whether some of the hits may have been ­ordered by bikies living overseas.

A number of the brutal murders are believed to have been carried out by fly in, fly out hitmen, while others are thought to have been at the hands of local guns for hire who have set themselves up as “professional killers”, sources say.

It is understood rival homegrown crime gangs are also using their own “hit squads” in retaliation for the bloodshed over the past 18 months.

The recently slain Pasquale Barbaro. He was gunned down in the street earlier this month.

The murder of Pasquale Barbaro, 35, last week led police to establish a special task force called Strike Force Osprey to investigate a further seven gangland murders — although detectives are staying tight-lipped and offering no official comment on the progress of the investigation.

Barbaro’s death came just three weeks after the execution of local go-to gun-for-hire Hamad Assaad, 29, in broad daylight outside his ­Georges Hall home.

Pasquale Barbaro: The tough guy who had to die

The funeral of Hamad Assaad at Lakemba Mosque. Picture: John Feder / The Australian.

Police comb Earlwood following Barbaro’s murder. Picture: AAP

Sources have told The Daily Telegraph that a photograph of Assaad’s head pasted onto the body of a rat, which was being circulated by Barbaro after Assaad’s death, angered those who employed Assaad.

It is widely rumoured that Assaad was behind the failed assassination of Barbaro on a Leichhardt street in November last year.

Kingpin Walid "Wally" Ahmad. Was murdered on August 29.

Gun for hire Hamad Assaad has also been shot dead.

While all eight killings are not intrinsically linked, they are being investigated as having possible connections through hired killers.

A number of underworld sources have said that an ongoing feud over turf between high-ranking Comanchero bikies and high-flying Hells Angels members could be responsible for a number of the recent gangland assassinations.

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Some of the exiled bikies are thought to have set up an outlaw ­operation in Turkey, as well as other parts of the Middle East.

Detectives are now investigating the possibility of exiled bikies pulling the strings from afar. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Pasquale Barbaro is just the latest causality and possibly slain by a “fly in, fly out” style hitman.

Assaad, who was known as “H”, was said to be one of the main “guns for hire” by a high-level Hells Angels affiliate — but he would also carry out freelance work for other criminal figures in Sydney.

H is believed to be behind the hit on Adrian Buxton, a Nomad’s affiliate who was murdered as he put out the bins at his Colyton home in May.

H also remains the main suspect in the brazen daylight execution of crime kingpin Walid “Wally” Ahmad, 41, at the rooftop cafe at Bankstown Centro shopping centre in April this year.

Walid Ahmad is fatally show at Bankstown Centro in April. The hit was caught on CCTV.

CCTV footage of the hit shows the shooter, clad all in black, rushing at Ahmad, who was sitting at a corner table with two other men, one of whom is believed to have been his bodyguard. As the men tried to bring down the assassin, he fired off an ­entire clip at point-blank range in front of horrified shoppers, before running to a waiting getaway car.

Ahmad’s cold-blooded murder followed the shooting death of Safwan Chabaji, 31, outside Ahmad’s Condell Park smash repairs business two weeks earlier.

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Bikie associate Adrian Buxton was executed at his home in Colyton.

Safwan Chabaji was shot dead in Condell Park on April 9.

An argument between two Middle Eastern crime families escalated into gunfire in which Ahmad family associate Abdullah El Masri, 25, was shot through the jaw, while Chabaji was shot in the head and chest.

Strike Force Osprey is also investigating the death of high-ranking Rebels bikie enforcer Mark Easter, who was shot dead and his body dumped in bushland in Cowan in Sydney’s north in June 2015.

The Rebels bikie was executed and his body dumped in bush in Sydney’s north. Police released this image of his possible killer.

Slain bikie Mark Easter.

Easter’s was the first death in the latest bloody gangland war to have erupted on Sydney’s streets.

Michael Davey, also a Rebels bikie, was then shot dead in the driveway of his Kingswood home nine months later. The father of a young son was shot five times.

The ambush execution of Mehmet Yilmaz, 29, who was killed in front of his fiancee in September in St Marys, is also under investigation by Task Force Osprey.

Yilmaz was shot dead outside the house of Comanchero bikie Tayan Chandab.

The Sydney strike force has parallels to that set up to conquer the Melbourne underworld killing spree, in which 36 people were murdered ­between 1998 and 2010.

One of them was Pasquale Barbaro’s uncle, also called Pasquale.

Pasquale Barbaro: Mourners keep it in the family

IT WAS a very private farewell for the brash Sydney gangster who died in a very public way.

Just two dozen mourners gathered at A O’Hare Funeral Directors in Leichhardt to say their final goodbyes to Pasquale Timothy Barbaro, 35.

A massive bouquet of flowers arrives at the funeral parlour for the Barbaro funeral.

His mafia heavyweight father, Giuseppe “Joe” Barbaro, arrived in a blacked-out Mercedes and was ushered in through a garaged entrance, away from prying eyes and covert police.

People attending a funeral held for Pasquale Barbaro.

Joe joined only close family and friends of the slain crime boss, who was gunned down in an ambush outside the house of construction identity George Alex in Earlwood nine days ago.

A simple chestnut-coloured coffin with brass handles was adorned with red and white flowers and sat lonely in the chapel.

There were no photos of him, no booklets inscribed with his name, just a simple 20-minute service, sources told The Daily Telegraph.

The low-key funeral was in stark contrast to the brash life the flamboyant father led on the streets of Sydney.

Barbaro, who was referred to fondly as “Tim”, was remembered with love as a cheeky child who loved to fish before growing into a “tough guy”, a source said.

A black Mercedes arrives for the funeral of Pasquale Barbaro.

A grieving man arrives for the funeral of Barbaro.

People attending a funeral held for Pasquale Barbaro.

The priest delivered the gangster’s favourite reading from the Bible, Psalm 31.

His brother Rosario was a notable absence.

Barbaro’s grandfather and cousin were both killed in gangland hits.