Rookwood Cemetery: Sydney’s most notorious gangsters’ battle for territory

It’s the cemetery where Sydney’s gangsters are laid to rest and includes lanes of headstones dubbed ‘murder row’. But while the recently departed are resting in peace, tensions are rising above ground.

It’s the place where all the bodies are buried from the city’s brutal gangland war, and it’s been dubbed “gangster’s paradise”.

Spread over 250m in the Muslim section at Rookwood Cemetery lay the bodies of some of Sydney’s most infamous crime ­figures.

Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad, Omar Zahed, Amar Kettule, Mejed Derbas, Erkan Keskin; they are just some of the figures six-feet under in the area known as Muslim 8 blocks A-H.

At the centre of this constellation of crims lies Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi, who was gunned down in February 2018.

Complete with two fans spraying incense, lights and fresh flowers, the former Comanchero boss’ slice of real estate is by far the most carefully tended plot.

Not many in that section of the cemetery have headstones adorned with pictures of them leaving court, but Hawi was a standout well before he met his maker.

While the inhabitants may be resting in peace, however, tensions above ground are boiling over and set to get worse.

Rookwood is fast running out of space, which is causing significant problems between the rival Hamze and Alameddine families.

One person with inside knowledge of the situation said the problems will only get worse as space fills up.

“They are running out of land and soon they will be buried in the carpark,” the source said last week.

Lone Wolf bikie Yusuf Nazlioglu is the most recent addition to gangster’s paradise.

He was laid to rest in uneventful scenes amid a lashing of rain last Sunday, six days after he was gunned down at Rhodes.

Mick Hawi has the most carefully tended plot in the Muslim 8 blocks A-H.

In May The Sunday Telegraph revealed associates of slain gangster Omar Zahed refused to let him be buried near his enemy at Rookwood Cemetery.

Associates did not want Omar Zahed, who was shot at an Auburn gym May 10 alongside his Comanchero brother Tarek, to be buried near Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad, who was assassinated just weeks earlier.

Sources said the request was made less than 48 hours before Zahed’s funeral.

The Daily Telegraph reported last week slain Lone Wolf bikie Yusuf Nazlioglu was involved in an altercation with Mick Hawi’s ­mother at a Sydney cemetery before his June 27 death.

The Sunday Telegraph is not suggesting she had anything to do with his death. Nazlioglu was acquitted of Hawi’s 2018 murder.

Salim Hamze has a plot that is also well tended.

Shady Kanj, an Alameddine drug dealer, is buried a row down from crime boss Bilal Hamze.

Kanj is fittingly at the opposite end of the cemetery to Salim Hamze. Police believe Salim Hamze was involved in his murder before he too was gunned down.

The teenage gangster’s grave might be the only one to rival the decadent display of Mick Hawi’s final resting place.

Despite being killed almost a year ago there are still more than a dozen fresh potted plants, chairs, lights and a bottle of water to keep him company in the afterlife.

Omar Zahed, a Comanchero linked to the Alameddines, is a row behind Hamze.

The dwindling space means those from rival sides of the gang war are more likely than ever to bump into each other while paying their respects.

Funerals for Sydney’s slain ­gangsters have traditionally been held at Lakemba Mosque, before mourners drive the seven kilometres to bury their loved ones.

Space is running out at the Rookwood Cemetery. Erkan Keskin was buried there in March this year.

But that familiar and localised procession may soon end, with mourners having to travel to Kemps Creek, unless Rookwood is allowed to make more space.

The 2021 Rookwood annual ­report reveals they are down to their “last 3 per cent of the usable land remaining for earth interments before having to remove infrastructure and review conservation areas”.

“Estimates of our earth allotment stocks indicate that several of our key communities will be without land for burial in this decade,” the report said.

In 2020-2021 Rookwood added 525 new allotments in Muslim 8 Block H and 392 new allotments in Muslim Blocks A and E.

When The Sunday Telegraph visited the cemetery this week there was a large crowd of mourners in the lanes of headstones dubbed “murder row”, despite the bad weather.

Friends and loved ones braved the near-cyclonic winds and heavy rain, umbrellas sheltering them from the downpour, as they mourned several underworld ­figures.

Heads constantly scanning for other mourners, many appeared wary of who would be turning up to the cemetery as Sydney’s gang war rages beyond the gates of the ­Rookwood cemetery.

Graves are created up to a nearby rail line, metres away from a car park and are now closing in just ­metres from an electricity tower.

It’s an unglamorous end to life for the criminals buried there who boasted of their flash cars, mansions and jewellery when they were alive.