Mahmoud Brownie Ahmad: Gangster planned getaway before death

Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad knew there was a million-dollar gangland bounty on his head, but police say he had a very good reason to stay in Sydney.

One big score and he was out, or so Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad hoped.

The gangster was preparing to flee Australia for a second time when gunmen cut him down near a friend’s home this week.

Police sources say a broke Ahmad knew of the million-dollar gangland bounty on his head as early as August last year, but chose to stay to commit a series of extortions and crimes to fund his second getaway.

It is understood the only reason he returned to Australia in 2021 was because he had ran out of money.

Mahmoud "Brownie" Ahmad returning to Australia.

He died this week after wreaking chaos in the underworld.

His main source of income since arriving back in Sydney was standing over other underworld figures and extorting them for millions.

One senior police officer said Ahmad, for one reason or another, thought they owed him money.

His most notable target in recent months was Omar Elomar. Police sources say Ahmad was behind a campaign of extortion against Elomar and his family.

Shootings, drugs and extortion: Bloody underworld of Sydney’s Ahmad family

One incident saw eight men of islander descent arrested after allegedly breaking into a prestige car company owned by Elomar looking for him, reportedly under the orders of Ahmad.

Around the same time Elomar’s home and business were shot up as a warning, on Ahmad’s order, the police sources say.

The Ahmads have most notably also been locked in a battle with the Elmir family over the past decade, but found new foes in the Harbour City.

Omar Elomar had several businesses and his home targeted by Ahmad. Picture: 9News

“He’d (Elomar) had a gutful, enough to take it into his own hands,” one source said.

“There are probably a good number of criminal identities who want him dead.”

Police who are still trying to control the gangland war between the Hamzy and Alameddine families now face the prospect of another feud exploding in western Sydney.

In Ahmad’s shooting, police sources say they are fighting a wall of silence in the community at Greenacre.

Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad knew he had a bounty on his head before he was shot dead on Wednesday night.

Police at the crime scene this week. They are still looking for CCTV of his killer. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

“We believe there were a crowd of people out and about in that street last night who have seen more who are holding onto info,” a seasoned investigator said.

“It is a one-way street, one way in one way out. I have no doubt people have witnessed more than what they are saying.”

Mahmoud this week found out just how history has a way of repeating itself in Sydney’s underworld.

His older brother Wally – nicknamed Mr Big – also died in a shooting police had predicted and had warned him of weeks in advance.

Walid “Wally” Ahmad was shot at a Bankstown shopping centre in 2016 over his role in the Charbaji shooting, and tensions with the Elmir family.

Just like his older sibling, Mahmoud didn’t heed several warnings and refused to change his movements with a seven figure bounty on his head.

Ahmad died almost six years to the day that his brother was gunned down.

Elomar and Safwan Charbaji.

Instead he chose to orchestrate drive-by shootings and almost six years to the day since his brother’s death he found himself laying in the street fighting for life with help from a Bankstown command sergeant and a Raptor highway patrol officer.

He had just left his friend Ahmed Banat’s home when his killers struck.

Police believe a burned out Porsche found nearby was the getaway vehicle before the shooter jumped into another car that was also found torched.

The Elmir family, the most high-profile rival of the Ahmad’s, are not believed to be the main line of inquiry for police.

Steven Elmir is serving a jail sentence for his role in a failed drug plot with Michael Ibrahim while Fawaz Elmir was reportedly smuggled out of Australia to Lebanon in a shipping container last year.

Their feud saw four people killed at the height of their bloody war.

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