Police gain upper hand in Sydney gang war with killers now jailed or overseas
It’s been 86 days since someone was last shot dead in a gangland execution in Sydney. The veteran cop trying to stop the bloodshed says police now have the upper hand.
Police & Courts
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Almost every gangster behind Sydney’s 14 underworld murders is in now jail or has fled overseas, says the senior cop in charge of stopping the violence, and police have pilfered a stunning 2.7 tonnes of the drug ice along the way.
Sydney has now gone 86 days without a gangland murder and the head of NSW Police’s powerful State Crime Command, Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said police had the upper hand on the contract killings.
But Mr Fitzgerald said he was “not naive enough” to think the gang war involving notorious families like the Hamzys, Alameddines and Ahmads, was dead and buried.
“The majority of these murders that have occurred over the last two years, we believe many if not most of the persons of interest are either in custody or overseas,” he said.
“We are still working on them whether they are in jail for other offences or offshore.”
“We are not naive enough to suggest that where you have drugs, huge amounts of money and violent criminals that other incidents won’t flare up.
“We are working constantly to suppress any potential problems in that world ... there are always ebbs and flows in the criminal scene.”
He said the relentless pursuit of Sydney’s contract killers had simultaneously uncovered multiple drug rings.
“It‘s a terrible business model for these people responsible for the shootings, because it injects us into their lives, their families lives and businesses ... then we discover they are engaged in other criminal activities,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
“It also brings their associates onto our radar, so in effect they are exposing their mates to police scrutiny.”
The last gangland murder was the horrific double execution of mum and known gangster Lametta Fadlallah and her hair-stylist friend Amy Hazzouri at Revesby on August 13. That punctuated two years of bloodshed on Sydney’s streets.
Police have made breakthrough arrests on five of the high-profile murder cases, including charging five people over the 2020 execution of Mejid Hamzy at Condell Park and two in connection to the CBD murder of his cousin Bilal Hamze in June 2021.
In the six months since Mr Fitzgerald has taken the helm of the State Crime Command - housing specialist squads like Homicide and Criminal Groups - his department has seized $21 million in cash, 180 firearms, 408kg of cocaine and 2.7 tonnes of methamphetamine (or ice).
Strike Force Hawk which was set up to tackle Sydney’s gang violence then expanded to target bikies statewide has arrested 629 people and laid charges 1805 in just over 12 months.
When the murders of four prominent figures came in quick succession this year - relatives Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad and Rami Iskander along with Comanchero Omar Zahed and Lone Wolf Yusuf Nazlioglu - police formed special Taskforce Erebus to work with Strike Force Hawk and the South West Metropolitan Region to drill down on the precise architecture of each murder.
“We also now have uncovered how they work. There is a business model that the criminals use in the murders, which includes the facilitation of stolen vehicles, the dropping of the vehicles beforehand, the destruction and disposal of the vehicles. There is a whole body of people involved and we are peeling back those layers and charging people at every level in the chain, we are targeting all of them,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
He also pointed out that those charged with accessory before and after the fact face similar jail terms as if they were the shooters, which may be an incentive for some of those to assist police.
“We are always interested in people who want to look after themselves and reduce their sentences,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
A number of key crime figures have left the country because they fear the police have arrested so many people on charges relating to the murders they believe it is inevitable they will give information against those higher up in the food chain.
ARRESTS IN GANG WAR
Mejid Hamzy, 44, allegedly murdered on October 19, 2020.
The sibling of former Brothers 4 Life gang leader Bassam Hamzy was gunned down outside his Condell park home allegedly due to an erroneous belief he had stolen a big cache of drugs destined for the Australian market.
Strike Force Courier – five charged (three with murder)
Bilal Hamze, 34, allegedly murdered on June 17, 2021.
The cousin of Bassam Hamzy was fatally shot after leaving Japanese restaurant Kid Kyoto in Sydney’s CBD after a bounty had been placed on his head amid a feud between the Hamzy-Alameddine families.
Strike Force Englorie – two charged
Salim, 18, and Toufki Hamze, 64, allegedly murdered on October 20, 2021.
A teen gangster and his innocent father were killed in a hail of bullets as they sat in the front seats of a ute outside their Guildford home.
Strike Force Ormerod – one charged with accessory
Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad, 39, allegedly murdered on April 27, 2022.
Ahmad had been long aware a million-dollar bounty was on his head before he was shot outside an associate’s Greenacre home.
Strike Force Betta – two charged with accessory
Rami Iskander, 23, allegedly murdered on May 14 2022.
The nephew of “Brownie” was shot dead in the driveway of his Belmore home allegedly by two gunmen.
Strike Force Bati – two charged (none with murder, one with accessory before and after).
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