Bassam Hamzy loses influence over infamous family as new leader emerges
With Bassam Hamzy’s jail sentence unlikely to end anytime soon, the Brothers 4 Life founder has been dethroned as the infamous family’s chief as a new leader rises up.
Police & Courts
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Bassam Hamzy has lost almost all influence over the family he once controlled, with his younger cousin the leader of a new breed trying to preserve the clan’s infamous name.
From inside the prison cell he has inhabited since 1999, Bassam has founded the Brothers 4 Life gang that ran riot across Sydney last decade and even written a “constitution” he believes his family should live by.
But with his jail sentence unlikely to end anytime soon and following the deaths of his brothers Mejid and Ghassan, and his cousin Bilal, in just the past 18 months due to the bloody feud with the Alameddine clan, the family’s best known member has been dethroned as king.
The family has in recent times been looking to Ibrahem Hamze – Bassam’s younger cousin – for guidance.
While Ibrahem is himself currently behind bars on remand, the shift away from his infamous relative and an apparent complete lack of regard for his opinions is a major change in the Hamzy family’s dynamic.
“They look at Bass(am) like he’s a weirdo,” one source close to the Hamzys said.
“They all deal with his s**t and make out like they care, but there’s a groan whenever he calls. They aren’t that close with him.
“There are five or six that are close, the other ones they don’t have much to do with, but they’re still family.”
When asked how much sway Bassam held over his family in the wake of the deaths of his two brothers, the answer was clear.
“None at all. He was the boss, but now Ibby is running the ship,” the source said.
Incredible photos give an insight into just how close Ibrahem Hamze is with his family.
In recent years he has posed next to his cousins Tareek and Haissam Hamzy in front of luxury cars and at a theme park.
The trio are considered the new generation of Hamzys and were earlier this year all charged over an alleged plot to kill an Alameddine associate at a western Sydney gym.
But years before those photos, Ibrahem showed off as he lay at the front of a large contingent of relatives, a few rows in front of his mum Maha whose Auburn home has been shot at a number of times over the years.
In another picture, the young leader sits smiling next to his sister and brother while on holidays.
The Daily Telegraph does not suggest that any other family pictured alongside Ibrahem have been charged or engaged in criminal activity.
Former senior NSW Police officer Ken “Slasher” McKay remembers the early days of the Hamzy clan being on the rise, long before their current contingent fell into a bloody war with the Alameddine network.
McKay said he believes the Hamzys’ continued involvement in feuds is almost passed down with each new generation in something of a paternalistic fashion.
“Their whole thinking is they’re owed all this stuff. This not working and this entitlement continues to be passed down,” he said.
“They’ll emulate him (Bassam) because they just don’t grow up and grow out of it. It’s a way of life that’s so ingrained in them.”
McKay remembers the first time Bassam came onto his radar after being jailed for a 1998 shooting murder.
“After he got sentenced, he came up on a phone that he had inside Lithgow Jail and we picked it up,” he said.
“His voice came up on a regular basis and it didn’t us take long to realise it was Bassam in jail, and he was making thousands of calls in jail.”
The founding boss of the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad (MEOCS) who oversaw the demise of the Brothers 4 Life gang, McKay understands the battle police are facing to end the war between the families.
“The Hamzys were around back then, but the Alameddines never raised their heads to more recent times,” he said.
“It was our belief very early on that these people aren’t going to change. The Hamzys have (followers) that are like apprentices.
“The formula that we created back then is probably the way to go you know. You have a multifaceted team of cops, you have the detectives targeting the main players and you have the uniform or street level officers picking people up on the streets.”