Comanchero bikie Tarek Zahed allowed to fly overseas

Tarek Zahed, the national sergeant-at-arms of the Comanchero bikie gang, flew out of Sydney Airport on Qatar Airways flight QR909 late on Thursday night.

High-ranking Comanchero bikie Tarek Zahed has left Australia and is bound for Turkey, after successfully having his application to leave the country approved by the Australian Border Force.

Zahed, the national sergeant-at-arms of the bikie gang, flew out of Sydney Airport on-board Qatar Airways flight QR909 late on Thursday night, accompanied by his wife and their young child.

After touching down in Doha, Zahed plans to eventually travel to Oman and then finally to Turkey.

The decision by the ABF to approve his request is understood to have angered some members of the NSW Police Force, which had been working hard to suppress Zahed’s ability to be involved in the bikie gang’s operations, something that will be harder to control with him overseas.

High-ranking Comanchero bikie Tarek Zahed has left Australia and is bound for Turkey, after successfully having his application to leave the country approved by the Australian Border Force. Picture: NCA NewsWire / James Gourley

Sources also said it was a slap in the face to Australians who have been unable to travel the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You’ve got legitimate people who are being denied from going and visiting sick relatives overseas, and they’ve let a crook out (of the country),” one source said.

“They’ve approved it on bulls**t compassionate reasons, when we’ve been trying to keep him here so we can keep cracking down on him.

“The Comanchero are a national threat and now we’re just letting them swan off overseas.”

Zahed, 38, had made two previous attempts to leave the country, the first of which is understood to have been granted by the ABF.

However that approval was eventually revoked, but only after an intervention by the Australian Crime Intelligence Commission.

Zahed – who recently contracted COVID-19 – had claimed he wanted to travel overseas to visit a sick aunt in Lebanon.

However police are understood to have uncovered intelligence that suggested this claim was a lie, resulting in his second application also being denied.

Zahed, 38, had made two previous attempts to leave the country which were refused – before the ABF approved his move this week. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Zahed appealed that decision and instead told border officials he feared for his life, having earlier been told by NSW Police that credible threats had been made against him.

Just months before, Sydney underworld figure Bilal Hamze had ignored police when they came to him with similar concerns and was gunned down.

After receiving approval from the ABF, at 10.22pm on Thursday the Qatar Airways plane pulled out of Gate 51 at Sydney Airport and Zahed was away.

Police sources told The Saturday Telegraph they were not sure the bikie would ever return to Australia and believe he may now join his exiled Comanchero ally Mark Buddle overseas.

“He’s told us ‘I’m not coming back until my threats are gone’,” one source said.

“You would have to think he’s going over to meet Buddle.

“We used to have the mindset when crooks leave that at least they‘re out of our hair but it’s ultimately counter-productive to what we’ve been trying to achieve.”

At 10.22pm on Thursday, the Qatar Airways plane pulled out of Gate 51 at Sydney Airport and Zahed was away. Picture: Pascal Pavani/AFP

NSW Police took out Serious Crime Prevention Orders against Zahed and other Comanchero associates in a bid to crackdown on their alleged involvement in crimes earlier this year.

The orders limited their movements, who they could contact and even how they communicated.

In recent months the heat had been turned up even more on bikie gangs particularly those with links to the Comanchero, in the wake of the busting of the AN0M encrypted app.

The Saturday Telegraph has contacted the Australian Border Force for comment.