Comanchero Tarek Zahed tried to flee Australia then caught Covid

Tarek Zahed tried to leave the country in July, before a second failed attempt in August. Now the high-ranking bikie has contracted Covid.

High-ranking Comanchero bikie Tarek Zahed has tried to leave Australia twice in the past six weeks to meet up with with exiled drug boss Mark Buddle.

Zahed, 41, first tried unsuccessfully to leave the country in late-July, before a second legitimate attempt in mid-August in which he tried to convince authorities that he needed to visit his sick aunt in Lebanon.

That attempt came just days before the national Comanchero sergeant-at-arms was fined $1000 for taking a 2am walk on the Bay Run.

High-ranking Comanchero bikie Tarek Zahed is the latest big name underworld figure to come down with Covid-19. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Senior police sources said they now believe that late night walk – in which Zahed was joined by his brothers Abdul and Omar, and good friend Raouf Mousawel – was actually an organised meeting in the wake of his attempts to fly overseas being refused.

The Daily Telegraph can also reveal that Zahed is the latest bikie to contract COVID-19, while his wife and their young child are also understood to have caught the virus.

The heat has been turned up on Australia’s motorcycle gangs, particularly those with links to the Comanchero, in the wake of the busting of the AN0M encrypted app.

Having allegedly been promoted by the bikie gang’s high-level associate Hakan Ayik, a number of members are believed to have been using the apps – believing their conversations could not be traced.

One police source claimed Zahed had used legitimate methods to attempt to get overseas to meet up with other major bikie gang figures, but the efforts of NSW police and federal authorities ensured he stayed in Sydney.

“Zahed has tried to get overseas a couple of times over the past month and a bit,” they said.

“He claimed he was going to visit his sick aunt in Lebanon... (but) he had a meeting planned.

“It was very lucky because he could have spread Covid anywhere and everywhere. His little kid’s sick (and) he’s got a wife that’s ill.”

Designer-loving bikie Tarek Zahed leaves the Downing Centre in Sydney after being in court for the first time after his extradition back to NSW from Victoria over a parole breach. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Zahed is understood to have caught Covid around the time of his late night walk in Drummoyne on August 19.

When approached by police about 2am on Henley Marine Drive in the city’s inner west, Zahed told officers he was “just exercising”.

The Daily Telegraph understands that when told he could not exercise in a group larger than two, Zahed allegedly became aggressive, but the officers stood their ground and handed him a penalty infringement notice (PIN).

His brothers and Mr Mousawel – who are all from Yagoona, more than 20 kilometres away – each received a PIN for exercising in a group larger than two, and a PIN for leaving home without a reasonable excuse.

The serious toll Covid has taken on Alameddine crime network associate Masood Zakaria can also be revealed.

Zakaria has been in ICU for over a week with the virus, however there were grave fears last Friday that he may lose his fight for life.

Sources said the combination of Covid and previous health issues had left Zakaria gravely ill, however his condition is understood to have stabilised this week.

A once promising rugby league prodigy, he grew up alongside high-profile members of the Alameddine clan – including rapper Ali ‘Ay Huncho’ Younes, who also contracted the virus last month but has since recovered.