‘Call Kaz’: Two arrested after threatening sticky notes allegedly left on tobacco, liquor stores in Altona North

Two young men have been arrested over alleged Altona North extortions, including threatening notes instructing businesses to contact exiled tobacco kingpin Kazem Hamad.

Sticky notes demanding business owners call exiled tobacco enforcer Kazem Hamad have allegedly been plastered across a number of Melbourne businesses.

Notes with “call Kaz” written on them have been handed to a number of Altona North businesses in another wave of alleged extortions at the hands of Hamad.

Police say a note was stuck to the window of a bottle shop with instructions to “call Kaz” or the store would be firebombed.

The notes were handed to a number of stores in the Altona North area earlier this year.

Hamad has now been accused of orchestrating a series of standover attempts in his bid to control Melbourne’s lucrative illicit tobacco market.

Kazem Hamad reclines on a sports car while on bail about a decade ago. (2010s) Picture: Supplied

His foot soldiers have previously been accused of entering rival tobacconists with a live WhatsApp call before handing the phone to the owner.

Hamad, on speakerphone from the Middle East, has allegedly been heard delivering a series of demands to those working in the store.

They include the weekly payment of the “Kaz Tax” or stores would go up in flames.

Organised crime detectives on Tuesday arrested two men over the series of alleged standover attempts around Altona North.

A 21-year-old Roxburgh Park man was charged with extortion with threat to destroy property, possess cannabis, possess schedule 4 poison, possess anabolic steroids and theft.

Police seized four balaclavas, cannabis, prescription medication, testosterone and a stolen driver’s license from his home.

He was bailed to appear at Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court on October 22.

Organised crime detectives on Tuesday arrested two men over the series of alleged standover attempts around Altona North. Picture: Victoria Police

A Craigieburn man, 20, was released and is expected to be charged on summons.

Hamad was implicated this week in the firebombing of a Truganina home in which an innocent woman was killed.

Detectives accuse Hamad of being heavily involved in the blaze that killed Katie Tangey in January.

He is regarded as one of the main drivers of the state’s disastrous tobacco war in which nearly 140 businesses have been torched.

VIPER’s involvement in the arrest phase of the Lunar probe came close to the third anniversary of the specialist unit, which has charged almost 1500 offenders since coming into play.

It has been heavily used in assisting in high-level illicit tobacco operations, after initially forming to combat outlaw motorcycle gangs, Middle-eastern organised crime groups and youth gangs back in 2022.

Superintendent Craig Darlow said the unit had become a fundamental part of the way the force tackled serious and organised crime.

“We’ve seen great success working alongside Taskforce Lunar to proactively target organised crime syndicates involved in the sale of illicit tobacco and associated criminality such as extortions and arsons,” he said.

“We’ve also seen a high number of arrests and seizures during regional deployments where we work hand-in-hand with local police or interstate law enforcement.

“We know that the presence of VIPER in regional areas has led to a change in the mindset of local criminals who previously thought they were out of reach of our specialist police units.”