Police to target gunmen involved in Sydney’s gangland shootings

Police suspect at least six of the gunmen involved in the gangland shootings that shocked Sydney this year are roaming free to ring in 2024.

Finding the gunmen involved in underworld hits will be a priority for police next year, as they suspect at least six trigger men are roaming free to ring in the new year this weekend.

The underworld assassins who eluded police are the last pieces in the puzzles of several gangland killings in 2023, despite major breakthroughs in arresting those police allege were the getaway drivers or organisers of the hits.

Police sources said in many cases the suspected gunmen had been identified, but they would have likely fled overseas in the aftermath of the shootings.

“There is no doubt we will find them,” a senior officer said.

One suspected shooter, who is alleged to have shot dead former bikie Yusuf Nazlioglu, has been identified by police to the extent they know how much he was paid and the flights he took to flee the country.

Police are searching for the shooters of all these men (clockwise, from top left): Ahmad Al-Azzam (a case of mistaken identity), Yusuf Nazlioglu (pictured with wife Jade), Ferenc ‘David’ Stemler, Marvin Oraiha and Alen Moradian.

Another, Anthony Pele, 22, is wanted on an arrest warrant for allegedly shooting dead Ahmad Al-Azzam in Greenacre in July.

Pele is believed to have fled overseas as well, after allegedly killing Mr Al-Azzam on behalf of the Haouchar crime family in a case of mistaken identity that also saw an innocent young couple hit by stray bullets.

The body of Ferenc ‘David’ Stemler sprawled on a Canterbury street. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Other shootings, like the death of convicted drug importer Ferenc “David” Stemler, have seen no arrests made.

Stemler’s death made headlines when schoolchildren were confronted with the sight of his body strewn on the road at rush hour.

Despite his criminal history and links to Sydney crime families, just which enemies Stemler made is still being investigated by police.

His case is the only one of this year’s gangland slayings where no one has been arrested.

Anthony Pele is wanted over the Greenacre shooting that killed Ahmad Al-Azzam. Picture: NSW Police

Six people were killed in shootings in Sydney in 2023 and three people survived targeted attacks, including criminal lawyer Mahmoud Abbas, who was shot outside his Greenacre home in July.

Mr Abbas, who is not accused of having any links to criminal activity or wrongdoing, has since moved with his family overseas after also being the target of a kidnapping where he was assaulted and had his eyebrows and head shaved as a warning.

It comes after a year of major breakthroughs in underworld murder cases unlike other years in the gangland war where deaths remain largely unsolved.

Within three months of his death in a Bondi carpark in June, police had arrested two people they allege organised the shooting of drug importer Alen Moradian, as well as three others in connection to the plot.

Just two months after Marvin Oraiha was shot dead in Elizabeth Hills in May, police had arrested a man they say had involvement in organising the shooting.

In even less time, police arrested Le Nghia Andy Pham as he was boarding a plane over the March shooting of Taha Sabbagh outside a Sefton gym.

Pham was charged a month later, in April, with murder over his alleged role in co-ordinating the shooting on the Western Sydney father.

Police are still investigating whether his death, too, was a case of mistaken identity, given it occurred outside a gym frequented by several members of Sydney’s underworld.

Since the spate of shootings over Sydney’s drug trade began in 2020, 23 people have died.

Compared to previous years, 2023 marked a successful year for police in terms of bringing those allegedly involved before the courts.

This year saw police arrest a handful of other people for five murder cases from previous years of underworld violence.

In the other 17 deaths from previous years, police had only managed to make arrests in eight of the cases and in only one of them did police have who they allege were the shooters in custody.

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