Alameddine and Hamzy crime families were in business together before bloody feud

A Hamzy and Alameddine were in business together before their partnership ended and a gangland war erupted, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

The late father of notorious gangster Bassam Hamzy and the leader of the Alameddine crime clan were in business together before their partnership ended and a wild conflict erupted between the two families.

Khaled Hamzy and Rafat Alameddine were joint shareholders of a company called Australian Investment Managers from 2018 until mid-2019, business documents seen by The Daily Telegraph reveal.

Rafat Alameddine was in business with Khaled Hamzy. Picture: Adam Yip

Hamzy died in August last year, two months before a wild war erupted and his son Mejid was killed in October.

In the year since the drive-by shooting, which police believe was orchestrated by the Alameddine organised crime network, there have been a series of tit-for-tat shootings across the city and a total of seven deaths.

Police have long thought the deadly feud between the families was over drug routes, however remained tight lipped when asked about the impact the patriarchs’ business dealing had on tensions.

Australian Investment Managers was first officially listed on September 28, 2018.

Documents state that Khaled Hamzy, who died aged 68, and Rafat Alammedine, 30, shared an equal control of the business as directors.

But a month after launching, Khaled’s son Bassam and Rafat’s younger brother Talal were involved in a wild brawl inside an exercise yard at Goulburn’s Supermax jail.

Alameddine left the Australian Investment Managers business on July 29, 2019, for reasons unknown

He has since created another company, MSJ Group.

Australian Investment Managers ceased trading on February 15 this year.

While it is unclear what the business did, police sources told The Daily Telegraph the crime families used various ventures as a front for their illegal activities.

“Their wealth comes from drug trafficking, organised kidnapping, significantly more fraud than you would think,” one said.

“So a lot of mortgage-based fraud, car lease-based fraud and general fraud, and crime in general, a lot of welfare fraud, childcare fraud … they’re in everything.”

Khaled Hamzy died in August last year. Picture: Facebook

Bassam Hamzy is in Goulburn Supermax.

Bassam Hamzy is one of Australia’s most notorious criminals, after founding the notorious Brothers 4 Life gang and is serving a 40-year jail sentence in Supermax.

Khaled himself served jail time in the 1990s for his role in a drug trafficking syndicate.

Parramatta District Court heard earlier this year that police consider Rafat Alameddine to be the leader of the crime clan.

Police believe the feud between the Hamzy and Alameddine clans was sparked by an attack on a mid-level drug runner for the Alameddines in mid-2020.

In alleged retaliation, Mejid Hamzy, 44, was gunned down outside his Condell Park home last October.

Since then his cousin Bilal Hamze, 34, has been shot dead in a drive-by shooting in the Sydney CBD, while last month father-and-son Salim and Toufik Hamze were assassinated in Guildford.

Alameddine associate Shady Kanj, 22, was gunned down in a backstreet of Chester Hill in early August.

There is no suggestion Rafat has been involved in any of the deaths.