Deadly quiet in Sydney’s gangland as cops clean up streets
The execution-style shooting of former bikie boss Mick Hawi in February 2018 was the first such hit in two years and the last for 15 months, leading to a relative calm in the Sydney underworld — for now. Read more in the first of Crime Editor Mark Morri’s weekly reports inside the city’s dark underbelly.
Sydney's bloody reputation for its regular gangland hits and almost daily drive-by shootings is in tatters.
The credit goes to NSW Homicide, Drug and Criminal Gangs squads who have quietly pursued some of the most dangerous men in the city in the past few years and allegedly been behind some of our bloodiest times.
While a handful are in cells awaiting trials other big time crooks with violent reputations have fled the country after seeing their mates or enemies arrested or killed.
One of the most feared men since his release from prison, Bilal Houcher, has left the country with a warrant out for his arrest over kidnapping and police wanting to question him over a number of murders.
Likewise his mate Mark Buddle, the former head of the Comanchero bikie gang, is also a permanent tourist these days drifting between Lebanon and Dubai who, if he returns, will be met by NSW Homicide squad detectives keen to talk to him about the murder of Sydney security guard Gary Allibon.
One of Sydney’s most influential and feared crime figures is now based in Russia with his wife and not expected to return to his luxury city apartments.
The arrests of members of the feuding Elmir and Ahmed families has also eased the tension on Sydney's streets in the south-west.
MORE
How murderous ethnic gangs terrorised Sydney
Live fast, die young: Sydney’s Bad Blood Club
That’s not to say there are not minor skirmishes, some occasional drive-bys between small time players, but the big time guys are not around.
At one stage in 2013 there were multiple shootings every night, sometimes up to eight in a 24-hour period.
The Comanchero and Hells Angels were at war and the Brothers for Life were out of control, advertising themselves as guns for hire and shooting each other or anyone they didn’t like.
The murder of Elmir relative Safwan Charbaji in 2016 and then the revenge execution of Ahmad family head Wally soon after sparked a brutal tit-for-tat war on the streets resulting in two more murders.
In many ways they wiped themselves out and the remainder were arrested for their alleged involvement in the war.
While the gangsters were killing each other Strike Force Raptor were and still are locking up bikies just to let them know they’re “on their case and in their face’.
The state’s consorting laws brought in several years ago along with firearm prohibition orders have been ruthlessly used against the once mighty power of Outlaw Motor Cycle Gangs. In recent years their numbers have fallen significantly.
"But no one is relaxing,'' said a senior NSW cop.
"There is always another crew wanting to get bigger. At the moment we are seeing relative peace but it comes in cycles. You just hope there’s a long break between them.''
Another senior officer said while the bloodshed may have abated for now organised crime is still flourishing.
"The amount of drugs coming into the country is unbelievable. The money laundering going on is staggering and the profits being made by the crims unbelievable and Sydney is at the heart of it all,’’ he said.
BIKIE GANGS IN SYDNEY: THE FULL INVESTIGATION
Chapter 1: The cops who crushed the bikies
Chapter 2: Inside the real-life police fight club
Chapter 3: The day bikies went too far
Chapter 4: Warlords of the underworld
And therein lies the problem. Someone will get greedy and want more from someone else, they believe.
Or a hothead will just want to make a name for himself and offer himself as a gun for hire and a cashed up drug boss will think why not get rid of a competitor or someone he doesn't like. After all what’s $200,000 when shipments are calculated in the tens of millions of dollars in profits.
Ex-Melbourne private schoolboy sentenced for bashing wife
Damien Carew, a graduate of the elite St Kevin’s College in Toorak, has learned his fate over charges for repeated domestic violence against his Russian wife.
Mum believed slain baby was a demon: court
A mentally ill mother believed her 10-month-old son was a demon and didn’t know what she was doing when she fatally restricted his breathing, a court has been told.