Body snatching attempt at Meshlin Marrogi’s grave shows gloves are off in Melbourne’s Middle Eastern crime war

The suspected attempt to steal the body of drug boss George Marrogi’s sister has shown there is no rule book for some of the combatants in Melbourne’s escalating Middle Eastern organised crime war.

A suspected attempt to steal the body of drug boss George Marrogi’s sister is another escalation in gloves-off Middle Eastern organised crime warfare.

There has for more than a decade been MEOC conflict in Melbourne’s north but the depraved intruders who tried to take Meshilin Marrogi’s remains from a mausoleum reinforced there is no rule book for some of the combatants.

Much of the friction involves the same players who are at odds over the drug trade, various successful and failed hits and sundry other brutal crimes of violence.

There have been a number of extreme incidents in the past 14 months involving connected figures from this small world.

In January, Douglas Mikhaeel survived being shot multiple times in an ambush as he waited at railway boom gates on Mt Derrimut Rd, Deer Park.

The shooters had no qualms about opening fire, despite Mikhaeel’s partner and two children – not his – being in the car as the bullets flew.

Police at Preston Cemetery to investigate an attempt to steal Meshlin Marrogi’s body. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Mikhaeel was a former member of the Notorious Crime Family gang which Marrogi founded from inside Barwon Prison several years ago.

Two years ago, he was targeted by gunmen after allegedly bashing and glassing several men at the notorious Love Machine nightclub in Prahran.

Seven months before the Deer Park shooting, former Mongol bikie Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim was shot eight times in the chest and stomach in a bungled contract killing.

Again, the circumstances were exceptional.

Abdulrahim had been leaving the funeral of his cousin at Fawkner Cemetery when gunmen pounced as he sat helpless in his Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon.

Two suspects, linked to an MEOC figure with a long history of gun crime, flew out of Australia immediately after the attack.

A few months before, NCF associate Korey Kesici was shot dead after leaving his family’s Mickleham home to talk to men in a BMW.

Underworld sources have suggested the 22-year-old died for “talking out of school” to a prominent MEOC identity opposed to NCF figures.

Meshilin Marrogi died from Covid in September 2021. Picture: Supplied

Meshlin (right) with Antonietta Mannella, the partner of her broher George Marrogi. Picture: Instagram

Soon after Kesici’s death, a third-party posted a message on George Marrogi’s Instagram account.

It read: “Take delight in the lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Melbourne’s carnage is nowhere near the level being experienced in Sydney, where 18 have died in the past two years.

Police here have come down hard on key protagonists using firearms prohibition orders and the VIPER taskforce, announced after the Abdulrahim shooting.

But the hatred here is as potent as in the Harbour City.

The bullet wounds in the chest of Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim after he was shot at Fawakner Cemetery.

The desecration of Meshilin Marrogi’s crypt at Preston General Cemetery was most likely a strike at her brother, who made many enemies in the brief time he has spent out of prison since his teenage years.

It is well-known that George’s 2016 murder of Kadir Ors at Campbellfield Plaza caused enormous anger among some powerful forces in the MEOC world.

Some of them had been upset that Abdulrahim was present that day, chatting to Ors at a bus stop before Marrogi made his move.

Among them were figures who also believe – rightly or wrongly – that Marrogi murdered another of their allies, a popular and well-connected underworld player.

The Herald Sun has been told some of those identities currently exerting influence are overseas.

Ahmed Al-Hamza been linked to forces opposed to the Marrogis. Picture: Supplied

Korey Kesici who was murdered outside his Mickleham home.

One is Ahmed Al Hamza, an organised crime figure who, like Ors, was once shot at Campbellfield Plaza.

He was once a close friend of George Marrogi’s younger brother Jesse but they fell out and he has in more recent years been linked to forces opposed to the family.

Al Hamza left Australia last year in the period after the Abdulrahim shooting, landing in Dubai where he has been pictured living an opulent life of flash restaurants and prestige cars.

There are suggestions he has now moved on and is living in luxury in another Middle-eastern country.

One of his allies is also believed to now be in the Middle-east after recently finishing a jail sentence and being deported.

Like Marrogi, that man exercised considerable clout during his years inside a prison cell.

Names associated with the violence of the past decade have surfaced in a recent spate of firebombings on homes and businesses around Melbourne.

One was from a family linked to previous conflict with forces aligned to Notorious Crime Family.

On the opposing side was a feared figure with outlaw motorcycle gang links who has in the past been investigated over a number of shootings.