Gangland bosses offer ‘finder fees’ in hunt for enemies

Questions linger over how Sam Abdulrahim’s enemies knew where he would be when he was gunned down – as underworld bosses offer huge rewards for anyone who helps hunt down their targets.

Big gangland finder fees are being dangled for the location of Melbourne murder targets.

The Herald Sun has been told that sums of beyond $200,000 have been offered by underworld bosses just to get information on where their enemies can be found.

Many crime figures have escalated their security and counter-surveillance measures, making them harder to set up for an attack.

A number of gangland figures have gone underground in the past two years as huge dollars are offered for contract killings amid underworld volatility sparked by tobacco wars, drug disputes and personal grudges.

Hawre Sherwani was shot dead at Caroline Springs on January 8. Picture: Supplied

Two hard targets were found by shooters last month.

It is unclear how a hit team found former Comanchero Hawre Sherwani to shoot him dead at Caroline Springs on January 8.

But he is known to have been acutely aware of being in danger after 20 shots were blasted at him as he walked his dog in a Fraser Rise park in March last year.

The killers who eventually got Sherwani posed as police to trick him into pulling over.

A key line of inquiry for police in the murder of Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim will be how those who killed him in a Preston car park on January 28 knew where he would be.

Abdulrahim was under constant threat of death in his final years and there had been numerous attempts on his life, including one which left him badly wounded after a June 2022, ambush at his cousin’s funeral.

A key line of inquiry in the investigation into Abdulrahim’s death will be how those who killed him knew where he would be. Picture: David Geraghty

Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim was peppered with bullets in 2022 when he was ambushed at his cousin’s funeral. Picture: Supplied

More than a dozen shots were fired at him at his former Thomastown home in May last year.

A number of previously flamboyant crime figures have gone off the radar in recent years amid rising underworld heat.

Some have vanished from the online world where they once happily showed off their favourite restaurants, gym visits and prestige vehicles for fear they would make it easier for those wishing them harm.

GPS trackers have previously been used by criminals, among them Comanchero bikies, to follow their foes.

Bikie Shane Bowden was shot in Melbourne in July, 2021, and a hit team finished him off later that year on the Gold Coast.

In the period before his death, two men were seen putting a tracking device in his car which was allegedly then monitored via a smart phone.

He was shot 21 times just weeks later.

A Melbourne underworld last year testified in a Supreme Court murder trial that he had used a tracker to follow a man he had been assigned to kill.

The shooter was later forced to abort the plan.

Originally published as Gangland bosses offer ‘finder fees’ in hunt for enemies