Sydney underworld tensions rising as police investigate Alameddine and KVT feud
They have been one of the dominant organised crime gangs for close to a decade, but tensions are in danger of boiling over between the once-friendly Alameddines and KVT members.
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Tensions inside one of the biggest gangs in Sydney’s underworld are threatening to boil over, with public brawls and drive-by shootings in recent months being investigated by police as part of the fallout.
The Alameddine organised crime network has been a dominant force in the city’s underworld for most of the past decade, involved in a bloody gang war — and as a result becoming one of the top targets for NSW Police’s State Crime Command.
Police have long alleged the Alameddines have been aided by the KVT, a gang of Fijian origin, which has worked side-by-side in providing “muscle” on the streets.
But in recent months, underworld sources said the relationship between the Alameddines and KVT has soured, with police now paying extra close attention to both groups.
“Our priority is stopping tensions from erupting into what we have seen previously,” one police source said.
A drive-by shooting in Guildford West on April 16 is being investigated for links to the conflict, with a former resident of the targeted home known to have connections to one of the groups.
That shooting came three days after multiple brawls broke out at a funeral for the father of an alleged high-profile Alameddine member. “It erupted, there was a full-on brawl,” one underworld source said, while another told The Daily Telegraph: “Then after the brawl, there was another fight as everybody was leaving.”
Another incident police are understood to be investigating is an apparent fight at a gym in the city’s west earlier this year.
The brawl, said to have involved high-profile Alameddine-linked rapper Ali “Ay Huncho” Younes and KVT associate Joseph Vokai, was reported to police, but both Younes and Vokai have apparently denied it occurred.
Meanwhile, a shooting at Brighton-Le-Sands in February was initially suspected of having some links to the tensions, but police sources said that was no longer thought to be the case.
The Alameddines have been the target of increased attention by NSW Police for a number of years.
First there was a crackdown on the gang’s drug-running arm, known as “R4W” – an acronym of “Ready for War” – which impacted their profits from cocaine distribution.
Police then issued several arrest warrants for some of the group’s most high-profile members for their alleged key roles in a gang war with the Hamzy group in 2021 and 2022. Among them was the Alameddines’ alleged leader, Rafat Alameddine.
Alameddine, 34, is currently believed to be living in Lebanon where he is a dual citizen and understood to be safe from deportation on warrants NSW Police have out for him.
Sources said the fallout between the Alameddines and KVT has been part of the latter’s intention to rise up the ranks themselves.
“This is what we see with all criminal groups, they fracture internally in order for the next group to come about,” an underworld source said.
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