Bikie boss Tarek Zahed given ‘reception he deserved’ after being arrested while in Sydney for wedding

Comanchero bikie boss and murder accused Tarek Zahed was forced to share his weekend plans with police – but what they didn’t tell him was how he’d be greeted.

Comanchero bikie boss Tarek Zahed was arrested on New South Head Road at Edgecliff. Picture: NSW Police Force

Comanchero bikie boss Tarek Zahed had returned to Sydney to spend Saturday night at a wedding and meet up with fellow underworld figures when he was arrested in dramatic and bloody style and charged with murder.

Zahed touched down from Melbourne on Saturday, with his lawyer sending an email ahead of time to NSW Police to let them know about his ­arrival and plans while in town, in line with the conditions of the serious crime prevention order (SCPO) he is subjected to.

Top of the weekend’s agenda was a lavish wedding overlooking Sydney Harbour, but sources said Zahed was also planning to meet up with some fellow underworld associates who he was not banned from talking to under his SCPO.

While Zahed had to tell NSW Police about his plans, what they did not tell him in return was that while in Sydney they intended to arrest and charge him over the 2014 gangland killing of Youssef Assoum.

Homicide Squad boss Danny Doherty said officers had fired “bean bag rounds” into Zahed’s black BMW as they arrested him in Edgecliff on Sunday evening. There were fears the Comanchero bikie – or someone in the car with him – could be armed, after Zahed was the target of a shooting in May that left his brother Omar dead and Zahed himself fighting for life.

Comanchero bikie boss Tarek Zahed (second from left) was last week seen in public for the first time since he was almost killed himself in a targeted shooting.

Youssef Assoum was found bleeding out in southwestern Sydney in 2014.

He died when he arrived at hospital.

A week after donning a $2000 Fendi jumper for dinner with Comanchero president Allan Meehan and a well known associate Mohamad “Almo” Alameddine, Zahed was left bloodied and bandaged in handcuffs on the footpath after his dramatic Sunday afternoon arrest on New South Head Rd.

But there were no apologies from Detective Superintendent Doherty for the way police went about things.

Residents and commuters witnessed the dramatic arrest. Picture: NSW Police Force

The vehicle Zahed was travelling in was peppered with bullets. Picture: NSW Police Force

“They live the gangster life, the lavish life … yesterday, I don’t think he (Zahed) was as comfortable being dragged out of the car after being hit with bean bag rounds and handcuffed,” Det Supt Doherty said.

“You’ve obviously seen his social media activities, he’s fully recovered the best he could, he’s living the life in Melbourne … we had information that he was up in Sydney and he was given a reception in Sydney that was deserved.

“He’s previously been shot at himself, so he’s aware and he’s on high alert for his own safety, so we were concerned that he might be armed.”

That shooting saw Zahed riddled with bullets as he stood in the foyer of the Bodyfit Gym in Auburn in May. It left him blind in one eye, and requiring ongoing rehabilitation.

Emergency service personnel work on Tarek Zahed after he and his brother Omar were shot multiple times at the Bodyfit gym in Auburn. His survival was viewed as “incredible” by physicians.

His brother Omar Zahed (left) was killed in the Auburn gym shooting.

His brother Omar’s death that night was the 12th gangland hit in the past two years, and there have been four more since, prompting NSW Police to form Taskforce Erebus.

Senior police have always vowed they would solve the murder of Mr Assoum and Det Supt Doherty said Zahed’s arrest, eight years on, was vindication.

“Again, this (investigation) has been (going) since 2014. It just goes to show that we look at these matters in their entirety under Taskforce Erebus … because of the risk these people pose,” he said.

Zahed did not appear in person or apply for bail when his matter was raised briefly in Downing Centre Local Court yesterday. He is due to apply for bail on September.