Year 8 dropout to global drug boss: Inside Bilal Haouchar’s rise to power

He is Australia’s most ruthless drug boss, ruling Sydney’s underworld from a Beirut jail cell. And he’ll almost certainly never face justice here. Read our special investigation.

• How Haouchar’s alleged travelling circus made millions

Inside an international drug syndicate’s Sydney safe house, one of its members has been cable-tied to a chair and is begging for his life.

The man has been beaten, tasered, and has a gun pointed at his head by one of the several gangsters standing over him.

He hasn’t made peace with death – but is convinced it is imminent.

“I can fix this, I can fix this,” the man pleads.

Welcome to life working for Bilal Haouchar, the man police allege to be Sydney’s most ruthless drug baron.

You wouldn’t guess it, but the syndicate member tied to the chair had once been considered a friend of the man whose associates know as “Bill”.

But his standing changed after he committed a grave crime: He told Haouchar he didn’t want to work for him any more.

Bilal Haouchar arrest shot taken in Lebanon.

Haouchar – who was allegedly issuing orders from Lebanon via an encrypted phone – had other ideas.

With enough insider knowledge to put a lot of people in jail, there was no way the syndicate member could be allowed to escape to a normal citizen’s life.

Eventually, the man was allegedly presented with an alternative offer to receiving a bullet in the head.

“The only way for you to stay alive is to keep working,” one of the gangsters allegedly told the man.

He agreed and was allowed to live.

“When Bill means business, that’s it,” a source said, after relaying the near-death account to The Sunday Telegraph. “Friendship is forgotten.”

THE UNCHARTED RISE

The treatment of the crime figure in the safe house illustrates the methods Haouchar allegedly used to become one of most powerful figures in Sydney’s underworld.

With an estimated wealth of anywhere up to $1bn – allegedly earned from large-scale drug dealing, gun running, kidnapping and violence – Haouchar’s rise to power was meteoric.

A major investigation by The Sunday Telegraph, via interviews and never-before-seen court documents, has revealed an unprecedented look at Haouchar’s journey to become Sydney’s most influential crime figure.

ARRESTED BUT STILL THE BOSS

The status of Haouchar’s empire is now under a cloud.

NSW Police had marked him as a high-level target for several years but their efforts were frustrated when he fled Sydney for Lebanon in 2018.

This changed in November 2023 when Lebanese authorities arrested Haouchar in a local casino as part of a large-scale organised crime takedown.

Bilal Haouchar (right) catches up with friend Mohamad Arnaout (left) in Lebanon before his recent arrest.

He is currently in a Lebanese jail while prosecutors build their case and is set to be indicted in one of the Middle Eastern country’s courts, with Australian police assisting in the background.

He is unlikely to be extradited to Australia as he also holds Lebanese citizenship.

But the arrest does not appear to have slowed Haouchar’s ability to do business in Australia.

Last week, the NSW Supreme Court was told Haouchar was still able to negotiate a $1m payment as part of a peace deal between warring crime families in Western Sydney – all from a Lebanese prison.

BORN NETWORKER

Haouchar, 38, was raised in the Western Sydney suburb of Merrylands. He dropped out of school after Year 8 in the early 2000s and has spent a large portion of his adult life in jail.

From 2012 he spent the better part of six years behind bars as a the result of offences that included having his parole revoked over firearm offences and being bail refused on other charges, some of which were eventually withdrawn.

Haouchar enjoying a meal with friends in Lebanon before his arrest last year.

In 2014, he was charged with murdering Western Sydney drug rival Ali Eid who was shot dead at Punchbowl in 2012. Haouchar eventually pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact of murder and was released from jail in June 2018 on a good behaviour bond.

He used his time behind bars to network with other like-minded criminals. When he finally got out, Haouchar cashed in by plugging himself in with some of the world’s biggest criminal power players.

“He was only out of jail for a short time (as an adult) and he made millions, if not more than a billion,” one source said.

Haouchar fled Sydney for Lebanon in September 2018 when NSW Police began investigating him.

It didn’t slow his rise. Instead, he grew his powerbase from Lebanon and allegedly tapped into the international drug trade and cashed in on the lucrative markets in Australia and other countries.

“Haouchar is one of the most well connected ... criminals Sydney has ever seen,” a source said.

POWERFUL CONTACTS

Many of Haouchar’s contacts were made as a wayward youth or on the streets of Western Sydney.

And like the corporate ladder, Haouchar and his criminal cohorts have allegedly climbed to the top.

One man alleged to be among Haouchar’s best criminal contacts is an infamous Australian drug lord who can’t be named because he is facing a criminal trial for drug importation.

The pair met as troubled youths and police allege the international drug lord became one of Haouchar’s most reliable suppliers.

Police allege one of Haouchar’s closest Sydney-based business partners is a feared gangster whose name is suppressed in a court case relating to a notorious gangland murder.

Haouchar does business with bikies, but also belittles them behind their backs, calling them “weak”.

“They make me sick these f..ken’ bikies,” Haouchar was secretly recorded by police telling another feared criminal inside Lithgow jail in 2013.

THE TERROR

Being based overseas is no problem for Haouchar.

Sources allege he issued directions all over the world using the encrypted chat platforms Stealth and Threema.

He allegedly used the handles “Terror” or “T-2” with a chat group for the imports and another for the cash.

Participants would be invited to the chats, which would be deleted once the job was done.

ALL CORNERS

Haouchar allegedly cashed in on all levels of the Australian drug trade. Sources allege he was involved in sending massive drug shipments to Australia. Mid-level amounts were also smuggled through the post via corrupt delivery workers. This allegedly included cocaine that a professional European soccer star hid inside a shipment of books.

Sources alleged Haouchar also controlled Sydney territories that were home to smaller “gram runs”.

“He’s got doors all over the world,” one source said.

A door is a slang term for a person – often a corrupt border official or similar – who can ensure drug shipments are not seized by authorities.

After allegedly coming to control Western Sydney gram runs in the early 2000s, sources alleged he moved onto bigger things.

Drug imports allegedly connected to Haouchar have made front page news.

More than 380kg of cocaine was found inside second-hand excavator that was shipped to Sydney. Picture: AFP

One included an infamous x-ray of an excavator, shipped from South Africa to Sydney in 2019, that revealed an almost 400kg shipment of cocaine hidden in the arm of its crane. Sources claimed the shipment was financed by Haouchar and the son of a well-known Sydney business figure.

When it reached its peak, underworld sources claimed Haouchar’s operation was a licence to print money. “He was moving more than 30kg of cocaine every two weeks,” a source alleged.

PARANOID PARTNERS

Haouchar’s reputation stems from the fact he has a ruthless approach to conducting business.

“You gotta break their spirits,” Haouchar was secretly recorded telling a criminal inside Lithgow jail in 2013.

It’s an approach that has made life a cutthroat survival battle for those who do business with him.

Haouchar might mark them for a beating, or worse, if he perceives that they have stepped out of line.

“You don’t want Bill to catch you lying,” one source said. “He’s always testing.”

Haouchar’s alleged methods of punishment are known and feared.

“If you’re gonna kill someone, you don’t just shoot them once,” Haouchar was recorded telling the criminal in Lithgow.

Sources said most toe the line because the consequences of crossing Haouchar are severe – as the drug syndicate member allegedly discovered in the safe house.

HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT DEVELOPED AN EARLY TASTE FOR DRUGS AND VIOLENCE

School was not for Bilal Haouchar — he only made it to Year 8.

After being expelled from Greystanes High School in Year 7, his last stop was a Blacktown school for children with troubled backgrounds.

He was booted from that school too and cut ties with the education system.

Instead, his learnings came from growing up in tough neighbourhoods in Western Sydney.

The 2013 mug shot of Bilal Haouchar.

“A lot of the crooks he’s operating with now, he developed a heap of these relationships from school days or people he knew around Merrylands or Guildford,” a source said.

The Haouchar family home in Merrylands was known by police and media as a danger zone until it was sold in 2022.

Haouchar began as a rookie who would accompany more seasoned criminals on robberies, drug rip-offs or dealing with unfortunates who sold drugs in the wrong area. He was comfortable inflicting violence from an early age and his alpha dog nature saw him graduate to calling the shots.

Born on July 23, 1986, Haouchar was the middle child of seven. He once told a criminal psychologist he was the “odd one” in his family. He told the psychologist his late father was abusive, but also said his upbringing was “stable and supportive”.

At 10, Haouchar was introduced to marijuana and alcohol. His drug use escalated in his teen years, but he was never classed as an addict.

In 2008, a sentencing judge said Haouchar was an anomaly in that his drug use did not “have a direct bearing” on his criminal activity.

The judge told the court, “It seems that (Haouchar) needed the approval of older boys...”

Haouchar’s relationship with his parents was poor in his younger years owing to his drug use and poor attitude to schooling.

His father died from a brain aneurysm in August 2017, aged 66.

It was an emotional blow for Haouchar. He was behind bars and didn’t see his father in hospital or attend the funeral.

Spending so much time behind bars gave Haouchar the chance to develop the networking skills that benefited him in later years.

Police at the then-Haouchar family home in Merrylands in 2015.

“He wanted to be close to people who were valuable to him,” a source said. “He would do things for the people he wanted on his inner circle, like buy them … a sandwich press, or he’d offer them protection. He would work out who was the best drug cook … and get acquainted with them.”

Haouchar allegedly built up a dream rolodex of criminal contacts, from large-scale drug suppliers to expert drug cooks.

In prison, Haouchar met one of his most valuable contacts.

The contact, who can’t legally be named because of an unfolding court case, went on to become one of Australia’s most notorious international drug smugglers.

He also became one of Haouchar’s main drug suppliers.

Even while Haouchar was behind bars, sources said his crew controlled significant territory in Western Sydney where drugs were sold by the gram. No one else was allowed to deal in those areas. When Haouchar got out of jail in 2018, he was primed to make money.

“A lot of people wanted to work with him,” a source said.

“When he got out he just exploded the whole thing.”