The who’s who of Melbourne’s powerful Middle Eastern crime gangs
Middle Eastern organised crime gangs are a place of shifting allegiances and old grudges fuelled by real or imagined rip-offs and acts of betrayal. These are the most prominent players.
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Middle Eastern organised crime in Melbourne is, in many ways, a small world.
It is a place of shifting allegiances and old grudges, some fuelled by real or imagined rip-offs and acts of betrayal.
Many of those near the top and fighting for control were once side-by-side in business or in productive mentor-student relationships.
Fractures can appear quickly.
Competition for the drug trade and, more recently, warfare over the illicit tobacco Eldorado, ensures the MEOC landscape remains volatile.
Some of the instability is compounded by acts of violence from the distant past which won’t ever be forgotten.
These are some of its most prominent players.
Kazem Hamad
Underworld kingpin based in the Middle East who has been causing no end of drama back in his old home town.
The well-connected Hamad was in mid-last year released from a Victorian jail for high-level heroin trafficking and immediately deported.
By then, he was already working to tap the rivers of gold flowing from Melbourne’s illicit tobacco trade.
It has been an intervention which has had, literally, explosive consequences.
Hamad is regarded as the instigator of Melbourne’s smoke shop wars, directing firebombings of stores linked to his main rival in the outlaw industry.
Police are also investigating whether he was behind a plan to steal the body of Meshilin Marrogi, the sister of his long-time foe George Marrogi.
Although no longer physically in Melbourne, many have felt his direct influence.
There have been repeated allegations of Hamad underlings marching into rival tobacco stores and handing a phone to the owner.
On the other end of the line is Hamad, demanding standover from 12,500km away.
Maytham Hamad
The younger brother of Kazem and the two remain close, despite living on different continents.
Maytham has denied being up to any mischief but police say he doesn’t give himself enough credit.
The fact is – rightly or wrongly – that he is regarded as an influential figure here, despite spending much of his time operating from interstate.
The younger Hamad in 2021 pleaded guilty over an August, 2017, attack on drug dealer Anwar Teriaki at Roxburgh Park.
Teriaki, who was said to have owed drug debts, was bashed with a baseball bat though Hamad was not found by the court to have landed those blows.
Soon after, Teriaki was shot dead after being cornered in the porch of a house.
Ahmed Al Hamza, who remains an ally of Kazem Hamad, was acquitted of firing the fatal shots.
Maytham, who does not have a long criminal history, was an associate Kadir Ors, a drug dealer shot by George Marrogi at Campbellfield Plaza in 2016.
Maytham was there that day and engaged in a high-speed pursuit of Marrogi through the streets of the northern suburbs in which they exchanged shots.
There has been long-term fallout from that killing which is believed to have contributed to dangerous ill-will directed at Marrogi and Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim, who had been talking to Ors at a bus stop shortly before the bullets flew, survived an attempt on his life as recently as last week.
Fadi Haddara
Melbourne businessman who is regarded as one of the city’s most formidable figures.
Haddara, 45, is a former topline kickboxer with a who was late last year hit with gun and affray charges.
That investigation was carried out by the Lunar task force, set up after an outbreak of warfare in the illicit tobacco trade which led to the torching of about 30 smoke shops.
Towards the end of the year, two of Haddara’s businesses were the target of arsonists.
His Karizma restaurant in Docklands was set alight two nights on the trot, attacks which followed the October destruction by fire of a Williamstown North panel shop with which he had previously been linked.
Haddara’s interests may have come under extreme fire last year but he is a survivor who has come through heavy-duty conflict in the past.
For years, his family feuded with the rival Chaouk family in warfare which began with the 2009 murder of Fadi’s brother Mohammed at Altona North.
The Haddaras emerge stronger than ever from that conflict.
In 2009, Fadi was present at a Coolaroo home when a blazing shootout erupted.
He and others, among them Mohammed Oueida, had gone to the property to rescue the victim of a kidnapping who was being held there.
Fadi’s brother Waleed is well-known in Melbourne’s kick-boxing game.
Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim
The former Mongols bikie-turned professional boxer is embroiled in a raging feud with Kazem Hamad that has been tied up with the fight for control over the illegal tobacco trade.
As recently as last week, there was another attempt on Abdulrahim’s life when gunmen opened fire as he left his Thomastown home in the dead of night to respond to arsonists torching his parents’ cars.
Organised crime police have for years been warning him that his enemies are coming hard.
Several businesses connected to Abdulrahim have been firebombed in the past year, including the Furlan Club in Emerald where he was due to fight for an Australasian boxing title, and a Moonee Ponds vape shop that had been torched three times last year.
In 2022, Abdulrahim miraculously survived being shot eight times in the chest while he attended his cousin’s funeral in Fawkner.
He had previously been involved in the Mongols bikie gang, which was said to have wanted him on board because of his influence in north suburban Middle Eastern organised crime circles.
That association ended two years ago when he and other notables, including Toby Mitchell, Mark Balsillie and Jason Addison, left the club amid some regime change.
Abdulrahim recently extended his unbeaten fight record after a win in Thailand.
Most recently, the Herald Sun revealed he was behind the revamp of deadly Sydney gang Brothers for Life on the streets of Melbourne.
He is closely aligned with convicted killer and former BFL member Mohammad “Little Crazy” Hamzy – who was just last year released from prison.
Ahmed Al Hamza
Heavy-hitter Al Hamza left Australia in mid-2022 and is ensconced in the Middle East.
The low-profile Al Hamza is regarded as intelligent and a strategic thinker, a man who prefers to stay out of the public eye and off social media.
Those in the know do not doubt his influence.
Though aged in his mid-20s, he appears to have been around high-level organised crime for many years and is well-connected in Melbourne and Sydney.
It was eight years ago that he was wounded in a shooting at the Campbellfield Plaza shopping centre.
Since then, he has been convicted of gun-running, acquitted of a murder and developed a ruthless reputation.
More recently, he has joined the ever-growing ranks of organised crime figures working overseas who remain close to the thoughts of Australian law enforcement.
Al Hamza has long been an ally of Kazem Hamad and the pair are believed to be doing business together out of the Middle East.
George Marrogi
Has been in jail for most of the past decade but remains a key gangland player.
When Gavin Preston was murdered at Keilor last September, the underworld was abuzz with talk he had been in dispute with Marrogi and his interests.
No connection has been publicly drawn by police but the fact Marrogi’s name was even mentioned in connection with such a heavy contract killing indicated he is viewed as maintaining considerable pull.
Marrogi is doing 32 years for the 2016 murder of drug dealer Kadir Ors at Campbellfield Plaza, a killing which had enormous fallout.
The founder of the Notorious Crime Family gang, he ran a massive drug and money laundering empire from inside maximum security Barwon Prison until it was dismantled by police last year.
An attempt to steal the body of his late sister Meshilin from her crypt at Preston Cemetery last year is suspected of being a direct strike against George.
Kazem Hamad, a former Marrogi associate who later became his arch-enemy, is suspected of having his henchmen carry out the atrocity.
Hawre Sherwani
Former Comanchero bikie whose house has been firebombed three times in the past year.
He was arrested alongside a fellow heavy hitter in July last year over a roadside brawl during which a man was threatened with a hammer soon after the spate of fire attacks began.
Sherwani is believed to have been a close associate of Robert Issa, who was shot dead in a Craigieburn shopping centre car park in October last year.
His prominence in Melbourne’s underworld has risen over the past decade.
In July 2014, Sherwani was charged after viciously attacking another former Comanchero who tried to leave the bikie gang outside his Collingwood business.
He and his co-offender, Vincent Meyer, broke the 29-year-old victim’s arms and left him with serious facial injuries.
Sherwani was sentenced to six years’ jail for that assault.
The Family
They are legally hard to write about because members almost always have matters before the courts.
Over the years, they have broken just about every law in the Crimes Act and racked up hundreds of convictions between them.
They’ve been involved in homicides, drug trafficking, armed robbery and extortion.
One observer recently remarked that they took the O out of MEOC, however they remain a feared and unpredictable presence in the northern suburbs.
They have frequently acted independently as part of disputes with other families and individuals.
But members have also carried out crimes of violence for others and there are indications of recent involvement in tobacco war activity.
Jesse Marrogi
The younger brother of jailed underworld boss George Marrogi has drifted from the headlines.
Previously, he had been a flamboyant figure, better known for his distinctive “f--k the law” stomach tattoo and extravagant shows of wealth on social media.
Things have gone a bit quieter with persistent reports – stretching back as far as early-2022 – that Jesse is the subject of big-money murder contracts.
The 27-year-old is currently on bail as he appeals his seven-month sentence for his role in a money laundering syndicate set up to clean drug profits from the Marrogis’ Notorious Crime Family gang.
Police allege Jesse’s late sister Meshilin Marrogi was a driving force in the illegal operation.
They say Jesse received 14 payments of $10,000 from his sister through bank accounts linked to a company named J Marrogi Auto and Prestige between March 2021 and April 2022.
His girlfriend is Sabrine Maghnie, the daughter of murdered gangland figure Nabil Maghnie.
Jesse was once a good mate of Ahmed Al Hamza but the friendship did not stand the test of time, and other things.
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