Assassins using platforms like Airtasker to hire unsuspecting Australians

Organised violence is becoming an increasingly professionalised industry and oblivious Australians are being dragged into crime. See how.

Exclusive: Drug kingpins are paying professional hit squads millions of dollars to murder rivals and torture informers, as they fight for control of Australia’s lucrative drug channels.

And in some cases they are dragging unsuspecting citizens – through online job platforms, like Airtasker – into their crimes, by having them move kill cars into place.

One of the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the country has revealed in its public annual report “organised violence is becoming an increasingly professionalised industry with a growing range of service providers for hire.”

Professional hit squads are being paid to carry out murders. Picture: Damian Shaw

The NSW Crime Commission, which has been involved in behind-the-scenes investigations of a string of gangland murders, believes there are known “hit teams who accept homicide contracts” as well as syndicates with a propensity for extreme violence such as the torture of kidnap victims, being paid to carry out a string of well-planned and co-ordinated incidents.

In the past year, it’s alleged there were four known organised crime related murder contracts which resulted in five deaths. Six people have been arrested and charged with multiple offences, including murder, relating to those five deaths.

The NSW Crime Commission said there have now been 20 contract killings since 2020.

Michael Barnes, Commissioner of the NSW Crime Commission. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The Commission has also revealed that security teams and private investigators are also been hired to track potential victims using both physical surveillance and tracking devices.

And multiple teams are being used to perform different and separate roles in kidnappings and murders from the surveillance to abduction itself and then the extreme violence.

NSW Crime Commissioner Michael Barnes said a common tactic in these homicides was the use of multiple getaway vehicles each put in position in advance of the murder and crime syndicates were using social platforms like Airtasker to hire unsuspecting cleanskins to move the so-called kill cars into place.

A burnt-out Audi believed to be used linked to a double murder. Picture: Richard Dobson

“They advertise the job to go pick up a car from one spot, using keys left in the glove box, and drive it to another location and leave the keys in a pre-arranged place. They then receive something like $500 in their bank account. It’s all anonymous,” Mr Barnes said.

“Some young and uneducated individuals think providing ‘muscle’ and other assistance is easy money and a way to gain notoriety. They should realise that if they move cars used in murders they can be charged with the murder and with being part a criminal group exposing themselves to the risk of very lengthy jail sentences.”

Forensics police officers examine the scene of a burnt out car in a double murder. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Mr Barnes said there is an endemic culture of violence which has manifested in public place shootings, as well as kidnappings and serious assaults.

Investigations by the Commission have revealed the string of shooting murders involved illegal firearms and stolen cars fitted with “cloned registration plates” prior to the murder which were then incinerated after the crime.

Information gathered by investigators shows that the “homicide contracts issued by high-level organised crime figures sometimes amount to millions of dollars,” according to the Commission’s annual report.

One case involved the kidnapping of three drug couriers who were threatened with guns and had fingers and toes cut off as their torturers tried to elicit information about a large quantities of drugs that had been stolen.

Lametta Fadlallah was shot dead in a professional hit. Picture: Facebook

Amy Hazouri was also hit at close range and slain. Picture: Instagram.

It is suspected contract killers and other professionals may have been involved in the shootings of Lametta Fadlallah and her friend and hairdresser Amner “Amy” Hazzouri.

The two women were hit at close range in the back seat of a car in Panania, Sydney, in August last year. Ms Fadlallah was the intended target but Ms Hazzouri was an innocent victim.

In that case the assassins made sure Ms Fadlallah saw the gun before they opened fire.

Three burnt-out cars which police were linked to the double murder were later found in the nearby suburbs of Moorebank, Revesby and Yagoona.

Originally published as Assassins using platforms like Airtasker to hire unsuspecting Australians