The War 2: Kill or be Killed - Spike in Sydney kidnappings and torture rattle NSW Police

While everyone focused on the death toll of Sydney’s bloody gangland war, cases of kidnappings and torture terrorised the city and shocked police. See the incidents in your suburb with our interactive map. Watch The War II: Kill or be Killed here.

The streets of Sydney have better resembled drug cartel-run parts of Mexico at times in recent years, with a senior NSW Police officer admitting the violence is “unprecedented”.

While there have been more than 20 murders allegedly linked to organised crime networks across the city since 2020, a major element of the conflict went unnoticed for a long time – kidnappings for ransom.

With so much public focus on the assassinations of high-level criminals, dozens of kidnappings that saw individuals grabbed from their homes in the middle of the night and held to ransom for massive amounts of money, often attracted little attention.

It is the job of NSW Police State Crime Command’s Robbery and Serious Crime Squad to investigate kidnappings and save hostages when these incidents occur, with the squad’s boss Joe Doueihi revealing in The War II: Kill Or Be Killed that even he has been shocked by some of the savagery.

“The level of violence is unprecedented. I personally can say I haven’t seen that level of brutality (before),” Detective Superintendent Doueihi said.

Among the kidnappings to make headlines in recent years was the attack on Omar Elomar in January 2022, thanks largely to CCTV footage which captured the shocking moment the wealthy businessman was snatched at gunpoint from the front of his Condell Park home.

The footage shows Elomar, who has underworld links, talking to a friend when a group of five men jump out of a vehicle and tackle him to the ground before dragging him into their car and speeding off.

He was released by his captors – who remain at large – some 24 hours later.

But the alleged kidnapping that shocked police the most occurred in early 2023, when innocent man Peter Vuong, 21, was dragged from the bed of his Smithfield home in the early hours of the morning by a group of men wearing face-coverings and armed with sledgehammers and firearms.

Omar Elomar was taken at gunpoint from his Sydney home.

CCTV caught the moment Sydney man Omar Elomar was snatched.

Vuong was allegedly taken to an abandoned house at Belmore and held for almost six days, despite police saying it was a case of mistaken identity. During the ordeal he was allegedly bound and tortured, including having his teeth pulled out.

At the same time it is alleged his captors were demanding millions of dollars from Vuong’s friends through encrypted messaging apps.

Officers from the Robbery and Serious Crime Squad had worked around the clock to track Vuong and his captors down to the abandoned house at Belmore.

In a top-secret operation, dozens of heavily armed police rescued Vuong from the house on Canterbury Rd and arrested six men they allege were involved in the kidnapping.

“It’s a really high risk and high stakes (period), and it’s all about critical decision making at that particular time,” Det Supt Doueihi said.

“The primary focus is the recovery of the hostage, (that) comes first. We engage our specialist police, our tactical operations unit, and we devise a plan.

“Once we are satisfied that the hostage is in those premises, we then action that plan and save the hostage.

“He was (allegedly) tied up during the ordeal. It was quite a brutal and violent attack. I mean, you just imagine what force is required to remove someone’s front teeth.”

One of the toughest jobs for police when a kidnapping occurs is ensuring that word does not get out into the public sphere about what is happening. This is to prevent the captors from panicking if they are aware that police are onto them.

Det Supt Doueihi said when officers burst through the doors of the Belmore home where Vuong was allegedly held for all those hours, he and other police commanders were watching on a live stream from NSW Police headquarters at Parramatta – much in the same way then-US president Barrack Obama watched the operation that saw his troops kill terrorist Osama Bin Laden.

Peter Vuong was taken from his bed and held captive for six days. He was tortured despite police saying his kidnapping was a case of mistaken identity.

“In any type of major criminal investigation we set up what we call a command post,” Det Supt Doueihi said.

“Here at (NSW) Police headquarters, we have the Bill Crews room. It’s situated within the building (and) we kicked that off at about day two of this investigation.

“It’s a way of managing the job, where all information is funnelled into one command post, where all leaders of the specialist commands work together and make those critical decisions on which way that investigation is going to progress.”

As Det Supt Doueihi and his colleagues watched live from Parramatta as police entered the home where Vuong was allegedly held and tortured, peak-hour commuters were shocked to be getting a first-hand view of the drama as loud bangs from police flash grenades echoed along one of Sydney’s busiest roads.

Video of that moment features in episode two of The War II, appropriately titled “Fingers, teeth and toes”. It is out this coming Thursday.