Police raid six properties over Mick Hawi murder
NSW Police has seized cars and $22,000 in cash during morning raids across several south Sydney properties as they hunt the killer of former bikie boss Mahmoud ‘Mick’ Hawi, who was gunned down in a brutal daylight execution.
NSW
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NSW Police has released dramatic footage of early-morning raids as part of their hunt for the killer of former bikie boss Mahmoud ‘Mick’ Hawi.
Police raided several properties across south Sydney over the daylight execution of Hawi in February this year.
Detectives from the State Crime Command’s Criminal Groups Squad set up Strike Force Amirs to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Strike force investigators swooped on six properties, including a Padstow business and a white weatherboard Beverly Hills home, just after 7am today looking for evidence.
They also raided properties in Bardwell Park, Brighton-Le-Sands, Carlton and Hurstville.
Detectives seized vehicles for forensic examination, NSW Police said in a statement today.
The footage shows armed officers smashing their way into the Padstow business and entering the Beverly Hills house.
During the raids, police seized the following:
- Four vehicles seized for forensic examination
- $22,000 in cash
- Electronic storage devices
- Mobile phones
- Documents
- Portable radio capable of monitoring police activity
Criminal Groups Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Deb Wallace, said Hawi’s murder was calculated and well-planned, but police are continually piecing together the movements of those involved.
“Strike Force Amirs detectives have trawled through hundreds of hours of CCTV and identified up to seven vehicles used to co-ordinate the shooting — some of which we have already seized,” Det Supt Wallace said.
“The stolen Mercedes Benz that was used as the initial getaway car was located on fire a few streets away from the scene that day, and the vehicle driven from that scene — a silver Toyota Aurion — was located in March at Beaconsfield.
“The Aurion underwent significant examinations and forensic evidence was obtained from inside. We have also established it was dumped at Beaconsfield by a tow truck.
“Today’s operation is a culmination of further inquiries to identify and locate the other vehicles we believe were used before, during, and/or after the shooting.”
Hawi, 37, was assassinated by a balaclava-clad hitman in the carpark of a gym on February 15 this year.
MORE: VIOLENT END TO THE LIFE OF A BIKIE PRINCE
NSW Police Force’s Assistant Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the attacker was on foot when they shot Hawi through the driver’s side of his borrowed, or hired, black Mercedes 4WD, as it sat outside the door of the Rockdale Fitness First just after 12pm.
BRUTAL MURDER
THE former president of Comanchero motorcycle gang, who was jailed in 2012 for his role in the infamous Sydney Airport brawl in which his gang stabbed and bludgeoned rival bikie Anthony Zervas to death in the domestic departures hall. Zervas was on life support in St George Hospital before he died.
It is believed Hawi suffered multiple heart attacks after being shot on February 15.
CCTV footage showed the gunman getting into a grey Mercedes — stolen during a carjacking nine months earlier — that was dumped and torched on nearby Chandler St, Rockdale, before the duo took off in a second getaway car.
Rumours that Hawi had a $10 million price on his head were rubbished by police who said: “No gangster’s life is worth that much, doesn’t matter who you are.”
Forensic officers remained on the scene, focusing mainly on the driver’s side of the black Mercedes 4WD, under the wheels of the passenger side and the entrance to the gym directly adjacent to the car.
Particular time and attention was also placed on photographing an unknown piece of evidence about five metres in front of the vehicle.
MORE: FORMER BIKIE BOSS SHOT DEAD AT GYM
MORE: BIKIES MOURN SLAIN COMANCHERO LEADER
MORE: PRISON SHRINK ON MEETING MICK HAWI
A number of shell casings were visible alongside up to 14 forensics markers scattered around the car and beside the entry point.
A gym bag lay strewn against the front wheel on the driver’s side with a number of other items scattered nearby.
Police were also on high-alert for fear of reprisal attacks for Hawi’s murder.
“One of the things that we will focus on … Is ensuring we put sufficient resources out there to prevent any retribution that may occur as a result of his shooting,” Assistant Commissioner Lanyon said.
INFAMOUS BRAWL
HAWI first rose to prominence for his role in the infamous bikie brawl at Sydney Airport in 2009 while he was the national president of the Comanchero.
Passengers in the terminal watched on in fear as the club clashed with rival Hells Angels members in a wild brawl that saw Anthony Zervas was bludgeoned to death with a bollard.
Hawi did time in prison for his role in the killing, but had been quiet since his 2015 release.
Being caught alone in the carpark was uncharacteristic of Hawi, with the former bikie boss known to be extremely careful about his personal security, sometimes travelling in a bulletproof vehicle — a necessary precaution after he had narrowly escaped death in November 2007.
MORE: THE DAY BIKIES WENT TOO FAR
MORE: WHO’S WHO OF SYDNEY GANGLAND MURDERS
The botched hit in 2007 took place about 2pm outside Grappa Ristorante in the inner Sydney suburb of Leichhardt and saw two men pump up to 10 shots into an Audi and a Mazda, with Hawi later boasting one bullet round had been lodged into his car seat headrest.
In June 2009, two inmates of Broken Hill prison — a high-profile Middle Eastern underworld figure, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and his underling — discussed the cost of ordering a hit on Hawi and his school friend Daux Ngakuru, the gang’s sergeant-at-arms.
The underworld figure said the hit never went ahead because he couldn’t find anyone to take the contract.
DEBT THEORY
IN JUNE this year, Detective Chief Inspector Steve Patton said police were focusing on whether Hawi’s death was related to him collecting debts linked to the construction industry.
“While we have a number of lines of inquiry, there is significant information to indicate Mr Hawi’s involvement in collecting alleged debts and connection to the construction industry may have led to his murder,” Insp Patton said.
Several police sources confirmed a wealthy Sydney property developer had become a “person of interest” in the case, after receiving information Hawi was possibly trying to extort $300,000 from him at the time of his death.
One police source added there was information to suggest the developer had already coughed up $200,000 to Hawi but was being hassled to hand over a further $300,000.
The Saturday Telegraph understood police were looking at the theory that the developer sought help from others to resolve his dispute with Hawi, but eventually two men with links to the Lone Wolf motorcycle gang ended up carrying out the execution.
MORE: SYDNEY DEVELOPER SUSPECT IN HAWI HIT
The police suspect, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said he had “absolutely nothing” to do with Hawi’s murder.
“Absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing,” the man said when The Saturday Telegraph approached him at his southwestern Sydney business.
“I’m sorry but I don’t know anything, I’ve got no involvement. I’ve got nothing to say.”
LONE WOLF THEORY
ANOTHER rumour suggested Hawi’s assassin is said to be a member of the rival Lone Wolf motorcycle gang, aged in his 30s who spent time in prison and was a former friend.
Official sources said Hawi and the killer were friends but fell out about a year ago after Hawi chastised him over his treatment of a woman.
Another source said Hawi cut the man out of his social circle because of his volatile behaviour.
MORE: POLICE RUBBISH RUMOURS HAWI HAD $10M ON HIS HEAD
Despite his membership of a rival gang, Hawi’s killer had been seen with senior Comanchero members both before and after the murder.
It is understood the killer has since gone to ground.
A source close to Hawi has revealed a factional dispute within the Comanchero gang may have also led to the hit.
He said the murder, signed off on by Australian-based Comanchero members, may have come from a former gang rival living in Dubai.
The 37-year-old was buried in the Islamic section of Rookwood Cemetery after bikies mourned the slain Comanchero leader at his funeral in the southern Sydney suburb of Arncliffe.
GRIEVING WIDOW
HAWI’S grieving widow, Carolina Gonzalez, travelled to the Al-Zahra mosque in a white Rolls Royce with their two children, while others arrived in a fleet of luxury vehicles.
The ceremony was heavily monitored by police, who took photographs of every man, woman and child who arriving for the service.
In the hours after Hawi’s death, his wife was given permission to posthumously extract sperm from her dead husband in the NSW Supreme Court.
The court allowed the retrieval after Ms Gonzalez’s legal team filed an affidavit from urologist Dr Derek Lok on February 16, which stated any post-mortem sperm retrieval procedure needed to be undertaken as soon as possible after death and within 36 hours after death.
MORE: WIDOW NO LONGER WANTS HAWI’S SPERM
It was being stored at an IVF facility until the court made a ruling on his widow’s pending application to use it, but this month the court was informed that Ms Gonzalez no longer wished to continue with the proceedings “for personal reasons”.
Justice Peter Johnson therefore ordered a hearing date be vacated and the sperm being held at the facility be destroyed.
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
► CHAPTER ONE: Inside the squad that beat Sydney’s gangs
► CHAPTER TWO: The real-life police fight club
