Underworld associates go overseas to escape Sydney gang war as shootings continue

Several well known names with links to the underworld have left Australia recently, believing Sydney’s streets are now too dangerous, with 16 people killed in suspected gang hits in the past two years.

Several well known names with links to Sydney’s underworld have left the country in recent times, sensing the temperature on the streets rising and not wanting to be caught in the crossfire.

A total of 16 people have died in the past two years, with the latest victims being gangster mother Lametta Fadlallah and innocent hairdresser Amy Hazouri at Revesby last Saturday.

But underworld sources said contracts are now out on several other figures and the conflict is far from over.

“I’m getting out of here,” one figure who has ties to that world told The Daily Telegraph.

“There has been big money laid down on at least two more targets and I’m going to go overseas and watch it from the sidelines.”

Omar Elomar has gone abroard after being kidnapped and targeted in multiple drive-by shootings in the past 12 months.

Murat Gulasi was shot in one of the most shocking incidents in the current conflict, a drive-by shooting at a Prospect gym that saw stray bullets fly into a neighbouring childcare centre – missing kids by millimetres.

While he survived that attack, underworld sources said Gulasi was taking no chances this time around and got out of the country recently.

“Gulasi ... is a very, very smart guy,” they said.

“He (Gulasi) headed off recently, on the usual path over to Turkey and Lebanon.

“He’s a very smart operator, particularly when compared to some of his friends, so you’d assume he’s read the room and gotten out of Sydney, and I don’t think you can blame him.”

The Daily Telegraph can also reveal Omar Elomar has also gone overseas after a tumultuous 2022.

Elomar was kidnapped at gunpoint from his Condell Park home in January, before eventually being let go.

But that was not the end of his issues, with his home and a business linked to him targeted in drive-bys in March and April.

Gymgoer help Murat Gulasi at World Gym in Prospect after he was shot during a drive-by.

Elomar was in June handed a 12 month community corrections order after being convicted on dozens of charges relating to contravening AVOs and stalk/intimidate charges.

With his court matters dealt with, underworld sources said he had packed up and left.

One man who did not heed the warnings of NSW Police was Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad, who was gunned down outside a Greenacre home in April.

That home belonged to his friend Ahmad Banat, who it can also be revealed has now gone overseas.

There is no suggestion he was in anyway involved in Ahmad’s death.

The decisions of Gulasi, Elomar, Khan and Banat to go overseas are in contrast to other high-profile figures who have allegedly done so believing it was a sure-fire way to escape the reach of Australia authorities.

But the recent return of exiled Comanchero commander Mark Buddle – long thought to be untouchable – in chains from Turkey has spooked several runaways.

Masood Zakaria (left, with friend Ali Younes) has been in exile since last December and is rumoured to now be on the move from Turkey, to his homeland of Afghanistan.

They include Alameddine clan heavyweight Masood Zakaria, who had also been in Turkey but is rumoured to now be on the move to his homeland of Afghanistan.

Zakaria has been on the run since last December, having escaped on a fishing boat out of Western Australia to Asia, and then continuing on to Turkey where a growing contingent of Sydney’s underworld are in exile.

But underworld sources said the recent capture of Buddle and his return to Australia to face charges related to the AN0M app had suddenly made the Afghani-born Zakaria wary.

“Word is he’s trying get out and go to Afghanistan to be with relatives, because with everything going on in Turkey at the moment, he’s paranoid he’s going to be sacrificed and sent back,” one source said.