Grave fears: Police to patrol Sydney’s Rookwood cemetery as it overflows with rival gangsters

Sydney’s gang war has seen Rookwood Cemetery fill up so quickly, police fear it may become a new battleground for rivals who bump into each other as they pay their respects.

The city’s biggest cemetery is filling up with underworld figures so rapidly that police are now patrolling it regularly, fearing rivals who bump into each other while visiting loved ones could come to blows – or worse.

More than a dozen men have been killed on Sydney’s streets in the past 18 months and almost all of them have ended up with the more than 1 million other bodies buried at Rookwood Cemetery, in the city’s west.

With the underworld war showing no signs of slowing, The Daily Telegraph can reveal NSW Police fear the cemetery will soon not only be a place to lay the fallen to rest, but a battleground itself.

Police sources said local officers from Auburn have been carrying out regular patrols within the grounds of the cemetery in recent weeks, directly off the back of a confrontation between former Lone Wolf bikie Yusuf Nazlioglu and the mother of the Comanchero bikie boss he was cleared of murdering, Mick Hawi.

NSW Police are patrolling Rookwood Cemetery regularly amid fears of violence between the loved ones of slain gangsters, such as Yusuf Nazlioglu. Picture: Gordon McComiskie

In the weeks before he was killed in June, Nazlioglu had a confrontation with the mother of dead Comanchero bikie Mick Hawi at Rookwood. Nazlioglu was cleared of killing Hawi in 2018. There is no suggestion Mrs Hawi was involved in Nazlioglu’s death. Picture: Supplied

Ironically, Nazlioglu is now himself a resident of Rookwood, having been gunned down on June 18.

The funerals of dozens of underworld figures have been held at Rookwood Cemetery in recent years, including Mick Hawi’s. Picture: AAP Image

“There have been conflicts there between the different families when they go to visit,” a police source said.

“It’s more the families when they go to pay their respects, rather than the gangs.

“So it’s not like you’ve got a Comanchero going and then seeing another bikie there and things kick off, it’s a case of relatives recognising the relatives of someone else who may have killed them.

“The locals have been tasking police into that area to make sure it doesn’t escalate into further violence.

“I know at one funeral they stopped and turned over multiple family members linked to deceased, and on the people they searched they had drugs, knives, batons, some of them are always carrying guns too – they don’t care where they are.”

More than 1 million bodies lie in Rookwood Cemetery, the biggest cemetery in the southern hemisphere. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The first body to fall in the current underworld war was Comanchero bikie Fares Abounader in August 2020, but he was quickly joined by Hamzy organised crime network boss Mejid Hamzy that October.

In 2021 individuals known to police such as Bilal Hamze, Salim Hamze, Mejed Derbas and Shady Kanj, were all killed, as well as innocent victims Mostafa Naaman and Toufik Hamze, teenage gangster Salim’s father.

Ghassan Amoun (formerly Hamzy), Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad, Omar Zahed and Rami Iskander have all been killed in 2022.

The run-in between Nazlioglu and Mrs Hawi was revealed in the wake of the ex-Lone Wolf’s death.

There are differing versions of what occurred, with some underworld sources claiming he spat at her and a number of others insisting he did not instigate the incident.

Regardless, police sources confirmed there had “100 per cent” been an incident and said it was believed to have occurred when Nazlioglu went to visit the grave of a recently killed gangster whose grave neighbours Mick Hawi’s.

Coincidentally, Mrs Hawi happened to be at the shrine to her son at the same time.

“With the Nazlioglu and Mrs Hawi incident, she was there visiting her son’s grave and he was visiting one of his dead mates,” a police source said.

“It was in late-May and was never reported to police, and when they went to see Mrs Hawi she didn’t want to make a complaint, but it 100 per cent happened.”

The gravesite of Ghassan Amoun, who was shot dead in Wentworthville in January this year.

Amoun’s brother Mejid Hamzy and their cousin Bilal Hamze (pictured) are also buried at Rookwood Cemetery.

Showing just how little respect modern criminals have for their rivals, in June this year ex-Mongols bikie Sam Abdulrahim was shot multiple times in an attempted killing as he drove out of a cemetery following a funeral in Melbourne.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith, South West Metropolitan Region Commander, said they regularly sent officers out on various taskings to keep innocent people safe.

“As part of our commitment to keeping our community safe, police undertake regular high-visibility patrols of places where we know members of organised criminal networks may congregate,” Asst Comm Smith said.

“It is our job to make sure these criminals don’t cause problems or put the safety of good people at risk.”