Pasquale Barbaro murder: ‘Taking out the trash’ as killings keep coming

UNDERWOLRD kingpin Pasquale Barbaro assassinated on a Sydney street had allegedly ripped off $1 million from rival gangster and was hours from starring in a murder trial.

• Crime kingpin Pasquale Barbaro slain ‘execution-style’
• Standover man Joe Antoun’s execution caught on CCTV

LESS than 12 hours after Sydney mobster Pasquale Barbaro was executed, the ghost of the slain standover man appeared in the NSW ­Supreme Court during the gangland trial into the murder of Joe Antoun.

Star City casino CCTV footage shows the 35-year-old with the man accused of Antoun’s murder, vicious Brothers 4 Life crime boss Farhad Qaumi.

CCTV pictures show Farhad Qaumi and Pasquale Barbaro talking at The Star’s food court area.

Barbaro and Qaumi scroll through the latter’s phone.

The vision, ­recorded just 18 days after Antoun’s death, shows Barbaro with his arm around the convicted killer while the pair scrolled through his mobile phone.

Farhad and his brother Mumtaz have pleaded not guilty at the judge-alone trial.

Sydney underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro arrives for an earlier court date.

Murdered standover man Joe Antoun

It is alleged the Qaumis were contracted to kill ­Antoun by his former business partner Elias “Les” Elias, a friend of Barbaro.

Barbaro’s name was raised at the trial as the Crown pieces together the phone calls and movements of the Qaumi brothers before and after ­Antoun’s murder.

Barbaro is not a suspect.

Farhad Qaumi is accused of the murder of standover man Antoun.

Audio played yesterday ­revealed Barbaro telling Qaumi in one recorded phone call that somebody had been asking him if he knew “the ­Afghan” — a nickname commonly used for Farhad.

The pair ramble for more than five minutes about “fishing”, thought to be code, and how the man who had been asking about the “Afghan” had most likely been trying to get Barbaro to give up information about Qaumi so it could be intercepted on a phone tap.

The shattered window of Barbaro’s Mercedes which he was sitting in when he was shot. Picture: Bill Hearne

It was a chilling and timely reminder of how long the underworld tentacles of this upstart gangster had become in his final years in Sydney’s underworld.

The 35-year-old standover man’s family has deep and long links with the Italian mafia. On Monday night he was found dead about 10pm after being shot as he got into his Mercedes Benz outside the Earlwood home of construction identity George Alex.

It was Mr Alex who discovered his mate’s body bloodied and laying face down on the footpath. There’s nothing to suggest he had anything to do with Barbaro’s death.

Hamad Assaad, hitman for hire, was gunned down in the driveway of his Georges Hall home.

Building industry figure George Alex. Pasquale Barbaro was shot down outside his home.

Barbaro, whose grandfather and cousin were also killed in gangland hits, had been at Mr Alex’s house for dinner and had been “in and out” of his home all day.

Barbaro’s brutal execution marks an escalation in gangland shootings in Sydney.

His is the fourth shooting death in just eight months, and there are serious questions being asked about if the Baird government and police top brass can stop the bloodshed.

Police are pictured on scene where Sydney crime kingpin Pasquale Barbaro was shot dead execution-style in Sydney’s west. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Police spent much of the next day at Larkhall Ave, Earlwood. Picture: Craig Wilson

Police fear there will be further killings.

Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad police are on high alert, with rumours there are more hits to come.

One insider told The Daily Telegraph “there’ll be four or more bodies before you see the end of this”.

Bounties on the heads of the big players are rumoured to fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The tangled web.

There were a number of people who wanted Barbaro dead.

“If you play with fire you are going to get burnt,” one cop insider said.

“It could be anything — it could be drugs, it could be sleeping with someone’s missus ... You never know.”

Mourners carry out the coffin at Hamad Assaad’s funeral at Lakemba Mosque. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

Barbaro had been due to appear before Downing District Court on December 6 on methamphetamine manufacturing charges ahead of a February trial.

The charges relate to the alleged manufacture of 2kgs of ice between October 2010 and November 2011 at Goulburn and Cobbitty.

Underworld sources said Barbaro had recently “rorted” a gang out of $1 million.

Barbaro previously escaped an attempt on his life in Leichhardt in 2015. Hitman Hamad Assaad, who himself was shot dead last month at his home in Georges Hall, was suspected of carrying out the shooting.

Police believe Assaad’s murder may have been a ­retaliation hit for the daylight execution of major underworld player Walid “Wally” Ahmad, although there are many who wanted Assaad dead.’

Walid Ahmad was executed in cold blood at Centro Bankstown

CCTV shows the gunman shoot Ahmad as he lay helpless on the ground.

Despite being on bail for commercial drug supply charges, Barbaro had remained active with his criminal ­enterprises.

“He was still pretty active around the city and wasn’t keeping his head down. It speaks to the ­arrogance of these guys,” a source said.

Barbaro was also known as a gym junkie. One man said he had a run in recently with Barbaro, who bullied him off a machine at a fitness centre.