How getaway car used in Alameddine and Hamzy murder changed colour after shooting
A getaway car believed to be connected to the shooting of Alameddine associate Shady Kanj was allegedly wrapped up in a clever disguise, now revealed by police.
NSW
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A car suspected of being used in the murder of a young Sydney drug dealer was wrapped in a black nylon film to disguise its real colour, before being stripped back to its original state after the shooting.
Police seized the now white Lexus CT200H hatchback from a home in Auburn on Wednesday morning and have also released CCTV footage of the vehicle in its black wrapping on the night of the shooting.
Another set of CCTV footage from months after the shooting shows the car half-unwrapped, with its roof and driver’s side panel black, but the rest of the car white.
Shady Kanj, 22, was a low level associate of the Alameddine crime network when he was shot in the head inside a car on Boundary Rd in Chester Hill about 11pm on Friday, August 6 2021. An innocent resident nearby was also struck by a stray bullet but survived.
After months of painstaking police work, detectives were able to get images of the vehicle on the night it was being driven to and from the crime scene and also later after the shooting where it can be seen to be partially stripped of its wrapping.
“We believe the Lexus was ‘wrapped’ in nylon black film when it was used in the murder of Mr Kanj and has since had that removed to evade the attention of police,” said head of the NSW Homicide Squad, Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty.
“Detectives have released CCTV vision of this vehicle – coloured black – on the night Mr Kanj was shot last August, and additional images that depict most of this dark wrapping removed in the months following.”
“We are confident someone would’ve noticed this vehicle in the days and months after the murder; particularly because it was coloured white but had an individual black panel still visible.
“The car will be subject to an extensive forensic process as we continue to examine its links to the murder and any other criminal activity.”
The main suspect in the shooting was Salim Hamze, 18, who was gunned down in the driveway of his Guildford home two months later. His father Toufik, 64, was also killed in the shooting.
No one has been arrested for their murders or that of Shady Kanj.
Both Kanj and Salim Hamze are believed to be victims of a feud between the warring Alameddine and Hamze crime networks which have been linked to up to seven murders over the past 18 months.
In recent weeks police have continued to crackdown on major players believed to have been involved in the war.
They are also hunting Masood Zakaria, one of the most senior members of the Alameddine clan who is believed to have organised several of the murders, before leaving the country illegally.
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Originally published as How getaway car used in Alameddine and Hamzy murder changed colour after shooting
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