Sydney’s bloody body count keeps rising in gangland urban war

SIX underworld figures have been gunned down on Sydney streets since 2013 amid fears the city’s escalating urban gang violence is growing out of control.

• Pasquale Barbaro: A bloody ending to a brutal life
• Executed hours before starring in murder trial
• Blood-soaked family’s links to Mafia

SIX underworld figures have been gunned down on Sydney streets since 2013 amid fears the city’s escalating urban gang violence is growing out of control.

Pasquale Barbaro

PASQUALE BARBARO, NOVEMBER 14, 2016

The Mafia figure is the latest addition to growing number of dead gangsters in the Harbour City. Barbaro was gunned down on an Earlwood street on Monday. His grandfather and cousin were both killed in gangland hits and a source told The Daily Telegraph he was working with police as an informant.

Barbaro was sitting in his luxury car outside the home of construction identity George Alex when he was shot through the window. He crawled from the car and was heard to shout “open the f---ing door!” before dying on the street.

Hamad Assaad,.

HAMAD ASSAAD, OCTOBER 25, 2016

Assaad was shot dead in front of his young nephew while his mother was inside the house. The 29-year-old, who worked as a hired gun, was killed in a hail of bullets by at least two men in the driveway of his Georges Hall home.

Assaad was a key suspect in the murder of underworld figure Walid Ahmad.

The gangster’s murder was captured on video by police who were positioned outside his home preparing to raid it.

Walid "Wally" Ahmad

WALID AHMAD, APRIL 29, 2016

Gangland kingpin and convicted killer Walid Ahmad, 40, was killed in a spray of bullets on the rooftop car park of Bankstown Central shopping centre.

Ahmad’s murder was believed to be in retaliation for the fatal shooting of Safwan Charbaji outside a Condell Park panel beater several weeks earlier.

But there were also suggestions another gang could have used the tension between the two groups as a cover to launch their attack.

Safwan Charbaji

SAFWAN CHARBAJI, APRIL 9, 2016

Charbaji, 32, was fatally shot and another man left fighting for life after a gunfight outside a Condell Park smash repair business linked to Ahmad.

An outstanding debt dispute was thought to be one of the possible motives being investigated for the fatal shooting.

The two rival gangs met outside A-Team Smash Repairs, where discussions were held and became increasingly more heated before gunfire erupted.

Both the injured were driven to hospital by members of their groups with no ambulance being called to the business.

Joe Antoun

JOE ANTOUN, DECEMBER 16, 2013

Standover man Joe Antoun was killed in front of his wife and children at his Strathfield home. A Brothers 4 Life boss, Farhad Qaumi, 34, and his brother Mumtaz, 31, are accused of ordering a gunman to shoot Mr Antoun after receiving a contract to kill the debt collector.

The court heard that Mrs Antoun heard a knock at the door and when she asked who it was, she heard a man say “It’s Adam. I’ve got a package for Joe” before her husband opened the door and was shot multiple times through a security grill.

Former business partner Elias “Les” Elias is also accused of being involved in the murder but fled to the Philippines and is refusing to return until after the murder trial.

Vasko Boskovski

VASKO BOSKOVSKI, JULY 29, 2013

Boskovski had just started his own debt collecting business when he was killed in the doorway of his Earlwood home.

The standover man was business partners with Joe Antoun, who would be gunned down in similar circumstances five months later.

Boskovski had become closely associated with construction identity George Alex and several well-known Middle Eastern organised crime figures.

He was also associated with convicted terrorist Khalid Sharrouf, who fled to Syria to join ISIS.