Deportation of Hells Angels boss Angelo Pandeli shocks crime figures in Dubai

The deportation of Hells Angels boss Angelo Pandeli has shaken Aussie expat criminals operating out of Dubai, with one leaving town in a private jet after word of the bikie’s capture got around.

The deportation of Hells Angels boss Angelo Pandeli has put the wind up Aussie expat criminals operating out of Dubai.

Why Pandeli was put on a plane last week remains unclear but the Australian Federal Police, whose officers escorted him home, say it was as a result of a decision by authorities in the United Arab Emirates.

What happened has not gone unnoticed among the Aussie underworld foreign legion operating from the desert city.

The Herald Sun has been told the sudden move on the powerful bikie shocked some of the organised crime figures who have for years been working remotely from Dubai.

One source said a former Melbourne gangland player felt the heat and got out of town in a private jet in the hours after word of Pandeli’s capture got around.

Angelo Pandeli with his family in Dubai. Picture: Supplied / Nine

Players mixed up in high-level drug trafficking and money-laundering abound in Dubai.

One visitor said he was unpleasantly surprised on a recent visit by the number of heavily inked and steroid-enhanced Australian outlaws enjoying an apparent life of leisure in social hotspots.

Much is at stake for many of them in a place where opportunities abound.

The Herald Sun has been told two former Melbourne MEOC figures are involved in a legitimate $100m apartment development investment.

It is one project into which they have shovelled profits from years of orchestrating major drug and tobacco shipments back to their old home country.

One has extensive property interests in Australia and maintains links to formidable organised crime players in Melbourne, allegedly paying their legal fees for recent scrapes.

The other – who has dangerous enemies back here with considerable reach – is reputed to be shadowed by two former Russian military officers wherever he goes.

That man is rumoured to have high-level contacts in another Middle-Eastern country, via his family.

A well-connected source said the intelligent and careful criminal turns up “silently” and then disappears just as quickly.

“Whenever he feels heat, he leaves. No one knows where he goes,” the source said.

What happened to Pandeli has not gone unnoticed among Aussie underworld foreign legion operating from Dubai. Picture: Matthew Vasilescu

The tyranny of distance is no obstacle for getting business done back in Australia.

There is persistent talk of big-money contracts being dangled via encrypted apps for murders to be carried out against enemies on their old stomping grounds.

Two others who would have been paying attention to Pandeli’s banishment are the young men suspected of involvement in the 2022 attempted hit on gangland figure and former Mongol Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim.

They flew straight to Dubai within hours of the bungled ambush on Abdulrahim at his cousin’s funeral at Fawkner Cemetery.

Nothing has been publicly heard of them since and it is not known whether they are in the UAE.

Dubai authorities have previously shown they were willing to banish organised crime figures from Down Under.

Exiled crime kingpin and Melbourne tobacco wars architect Kazem Hamad tried to get into the city in the middle of last year but was told he was not welcome.

The Herald Sun has been told he had an offer to stay in the opulent apartment of a senior Australian outlaw motorcycle gang figure, who was away.

Hamad, who was born in Iraq, is now elsewhere in the Middle-East.

Kazem Hamad also tried to get into Dubai but was told he was not welcome. Picture: Supplied

He is believed to remain a person of interest in last year’s murder of Mohammed “Afghan Ali” Keshtiar, an investigation which is the subject of a $1 million reward announced by Victoria Police this week.

The Adelaide-born Pandeli was abruptly detained in late August.

Nothing was heard about what was a highly secretive operation until it was revealed he had been flown into Sydney under a high-security escort last Thursday.

The AFP has declined to say what is happening with Pandeli now, only saying it has “coverage” of him.

“This is a complex investigation. For the safety of individuals and to preserve operational integrity, the AFP will make no further comment at this time,” a statement from the agency said.

The lack of information will have only fed into concerns those operating in what one observer described as some of kind underworld neutral zone.

Grudges are put in a locker on arrival because conflict is bad for business in a place where local authorities take a hard line on trouble.

“Beefs don’t exist in Dubai,” that watcher said.

Dubai is a city where the past has to run that little bit harder to catch up with you, according to bikie boss Amad ‘Jay’ Malkoun.

Visitors have come from all manner of factions.

Kaz Hamad’s brother Maytham and accused tobacco war protagonist Majid Alibadi flew there first class in October last year, a court hearing was later told.

Notorious Crime Family figure Jesse Marrogi – an enemy of the Hamads – spent time there with his girlfriend Sabrine Maghnie a couple of years ago, apparently on a free-spending jaunt.

Bikie boss Amad “Jay” Malkoun relocated to Dubai for years after leaving Melbourne just over a decade ago.

In his new memoir, The Consultant, Malkoun says it is a place where fortunes were dictated by how much cash someone had.

“Dubai is a city where the past has to run that little bit harder to catch up with you,” wrote Malkoun, who is now back in Australia.

“If you’re making five, six million a year and your work has a way of making enemies, then Dubai is a relatively safe place to live.

“If you arrive with a stack of cash, it doesn’t matter how you acquired it. You can blend in. If you’re driving a brand-new Bentley, you may as well be taking the bus. If you’ve got a fleet of 20 cars, that means nothing there because everyone’s got a fleet of 20 cars.”

Originally published as Deportation of Hells Angels boss Angelo Pandeli shocks crime figures in Dubai