Anna Caldwell: Sydney’s reputation at risk from gangs and underworld shootings

A deadly gangland feud is festering like a dark underbelly and threatening to change the very fabric of our harbour city. It could catch any of us in its crossfire, writes Anna Caldwell.

Sydney’s global reputation paints us as a glamorous world class city where you can feel safe walking around after dark.

We are indeed one of the best cities in the world. But what this reputation doesn’t capture is the deadly gangland feud festering like a dark underbelly and threatening to change the very fabric of the harbour city.

Lurking in the shadows – or darting through broad daylight in a balaclava – there is a deadly scourge that threatens to catch any of us in its crossfire.

Sydney’s underworld is on fire. Thirteen deaths, 18 months. And the gangsters are so bold they don’t care who they cross.

They might be gunning for underworld targets but if you get in the way you won’t be spared.

The ongoing Sydney underworld gang war is a danger to the public. Artwork: Terry Pontikos

Anyone who says this war is just baddies shooting up baddies fails to comprehend the scale of the violence and the risk that exists from the western suburbs, through the CBD and into the ritzy east.

In February last year, a nurse at Auburn Hospital was injured treating a patient as a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting whizzed past.

A bullet passed through the bottom of a second story window of Auburn Hospital, injuring a nurse. Picture: John Grainger

Meanwhile at Hurstville 29-year-old father-to-be Mustafa Naaman was executed in his car leaving a gym in a case of mistaken identity by bumbling hit men.

Another innocent young man, Ramadan Osman, was nearly killed in August when a bullet blasted into his windscreen in Chester Hill – a shot meant for low level Alameddine associate Shady Kanj.

In December, gunfire narrowly missed children in childcare at a Prospect gym, the CCTV – showing the youngsters scramble for safety – distressing for even seasoned professionals.

From the suburbs, the terror stretches to the CBD where last year, on an otherwise unremarkable weeknight, bullets were pumped into the belly of crime boss Bilal Hamze outside glam Bridge Street restaurant Kid Kyoto.

A bullet hole in a truck in Chester Hill, near a at a crime scene where a shooting occurred. Picture: Damian Shaw

The ritzy east isn’t spared either with a comprehensive plan hatched for the assassination of gangster Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad in Rushcutters Bay last October before he fled. The hit men caught up with him in April and slayed him in a hail of bullets outside a Greenacre home.

This is not crime porn. This is a city with an underworld problem.

Young children and their carers narrowly missed being hurt when bullets were fired into a Prospect gym, and ended up in the wall of a creche.

The Daily Telegraph has been blown away by the response to our new video documentary series The War which has pulled back the curtain on this dirty, deadly, blood-lust fuelled underbelly of the harbour city.

The scale of the public interest in the issue is a warning to politicians, cops and the judiciary that they must tackle the problem and not just hope the crooks self-eliminate.

The scene, on Bridge St in Sydney, where gangster Bilal Hamze was executed. Picture: Adam Yip

“Just let them shoot each other and finish it,” some scoff. It won’t work like that.

It’s a positive sign that the NSW government moved yesterday to strengthen its offensive on organised crime.

Cabinet backed laws to confiscate unexplained wealth from criminal gangs and ban the use of encrypted devices.

The laws were signed off on in a snap cabinet meeting Wednesday, designed to hit the gangs where it hurts – their finances.

Special investigation: The War — Inside Sydney’s gang conflict

Because this is not just a blood feud. It’s a business feud, with warring gangs fighting to the death over the drug trade.

The new laws also expand the powers to stop and search for unexplained wealth and to infiltrate their encrypted communications.

“Organised crime is all about drug supply and money – and to truly shut it down we need to shut down the flow of dollars that fuel it,” Perrottet said.

This is a wise move from the NSW government.

On Macquarie Street, all the attention right now might be on land tax and tolls, but you should expect law and order to become an election issue.

Labor’s Walt Secord has been taking the fight up to the government on crime and the judiciary and he won’t lay off before the poll.

Sussex Street strategists are planning an all out assault on law and order for the March election.

This means Perrottet and his crew need to get in front of this issue and stay in front if they want to have a chance of winning.

One problem currently beyond the Premier’s control is the judiciary which, through repeated bail fails, has undermined confidence it’s up to the task.

The government is attempting to address this through legislative remedy but there are already opponents.

The government is all too aware that focus groups identify law and order as a top of mind issue, particularly for conservative voters.

Sydneysiders have a right to feel safe.

The gangs and their lust to control the drug trade threaten to snatch Sydney’s reputation from the rest of us.