Mark Morri: Modern tech makes gangland hits hard to stop

While police have gotten a lot better at stopping a gangland hits at the source, modern technology means they have to work smarter and harder to intercept criminals, writes Mark Morri.

For the past forty years, I have been watching Sydney crims shooting each other over money, drugs, women — and sometimes just for the hell of it.

Gangland executions are nothing new, and no matter what the cops do there will be more.

In fact, it’s a credit in many ways we haven’t had more in the modern era.

“There is so much more money around today and more crime groups — especially with international links — than there was decades ago, yet the amount of gangland-related hits is not as high as people imagine,” said a veteran crime fighter.

“In the mid-80s there were nine or so murders in 12 months, a few people went missing that should be added to that number.

‘In the 90s there were sometimes up to 40 reported shootings in Cabramatta some months alone, ’’ he said.

Police comb a crime scene after a gangland shooting. Picture: Christian Gilles

“Police have got a lot better at suppression strategy and have stronger laws to keep an eye on crooks, but they will never stop them.”

There is also the fallacy that the olden day gangsters had a code of ethics, where they only shot people in the back of the head and at night.

“That romantic view of the old-style hitman is crap. They were just as reckless back then as they are now. Danny Chubb was shot outside a fish and chip shop in broad daylight in 1984 as he walked out to get in his Jag in Millers Point,‘’ he said.

The use of encrypted devices and bitcoin has made plotting, ordering and paying for murders so much easier with less chance of detection than in the past.

“Anyone can send a Cypher or Stealth message from anywhere in the world asking to have someone killed, and at the moment it’s almost impossible to intercept,’’ said a senior cop.

“It‘s the way the modern hit is carried out,’’ he said.

Sydney‘s latests spree of public shootings and bloody murders make all the headlines, but police say the public doesn’t know about the number of killings, knee-cappings and drive-by shootings they have stopped.

Detectives arrive to investigate the shooting of Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad in Greenacre on Thursday. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

They have knocked on doors and warned potential targets of their imminent demise if they are not careful.

“You can tell them but they have to listen,’’ the senior cop said.

Mejid and Bilal Hamze were warned, Ghassan Amoun was warned and so was Brownie Ahmad, but they didn't listen.

“The money involved in organised crime is astronomical and murder is a by-product of it,’’ my source said.

He cited the case of Erkan Keskin, the head of the Lone Wolf gang who recently died in Turkey, who paid for six murders in the past decade, maybe more.

“Keskin ordered murders on a whim and paid top dollar for it because he could … money was no object,” the source noted.

“And unfortunately there will be Keskins and his like around forever, and until we find a way to strip them of their wealth and their encrypted device its not a fair fight between gangster and cop.”

Originally published as Mark Morri: Modern tech makes gangland hits hard to stop