Deadline: Taskforce turns up the heat in fiery tobacco wars

More than 70 smoke shops and other businesses have gone up in flames across Victoria in 16 months, but could recent developments mean the fiery tobacco wars are fizzling at last?

Interesting times ahead after some significant tobacco wars movement last week.

Maytham Hamad, the brother of exiled gangland wildcard Kazem Hamad, was arrested in Perth and remanded on organised crime charges in that state after a cross-continent operation called Grosvenor.

Four days after Maytham was smoked out, there was a potentially significant police sweep on this side of the country involving detectives from the Lunar taskforce.

We can only imagine there will be intense interest in the results of ballistic testing which should be well under way by now.

Maytham Hamad has been arrested in Perth and remanded on organised crime charges.

That’s because detectives seized 15 guns at a Sunbury home where they also arrested a 29-year-old man.

Much as we’d love to, it would be wrong to speculate on whether those weapons could be linked to some of the firearm crime in Melbourne of recent months, which has involved human and inanimate targets.

The Hamad syndicate has had a bit of a shake-up in recent times.

Maytham was regarded by police as some kind of national manager, getting things done on behalf of Kaz, who remains in Iraq after his deportation from Australia in the middle of last year.

Cigarettes seized by WA Police. Picture: WA Police

The chap viewed as the Victorian operations manager, Majid Alibadi, was arrested last month and is on bail under the kind of strict conditions which might cramp his style.

All of this may, it is hoped, help ease the conflict which has led to the torching of more than 70 tobacconists and other businesses in the past 16 months.

“I’m pretty confident the war has fizzled out for now,” one well-connected gangland observer said last week.

Meanwhile, some formidable characters — including the likes of Fadi Haddara, Sam Abdulrahim and Mohammed Oueida — will be maintaining a keen interest in developments.

Majid Alibadi was arrested last month and is on bail. Picture: 9 News

Black market blues

This column recently witnessed a nasty altercation at a western suburbs supermarket where a loaded-up thief was interrupted on his way out.

The bloke had apparently been coming in on a weekly basis and raiding the store’s cosmetics section until management lost patience and hired some security.

With no arrest powers, the best the security man could do was ask the stolen property be returned, a request which was declined.

“You wanna have a f----n’ crack,” was the thief’s charming response.

The security man might have enjoyed doing just that but the fact he probably would have lost his job meant it wasn’t a good option.

There’s big black market money in cosmetics and a range of other frequently shoplifted items which are exchanged for drugs by fences.

Fawkner crime reduction team last week made arrests after two men allegedly spent 11 days raiding shops in suburban Melbourne and regional towns from Colac to Wodonga in a major spree.

Cosmetics, baby formula, vitamins, dental products and medicine worth $17,000 were allegedly stolen to order as part of what police suspect is a major organised retail crime syndicate involving as many as 20 people.

Investigators believe the stolen goods were being traded for drugs.

A Deer Park man, 26, has been charged with theft, handling stolen goods and heroin possession.

A 25-year-old, also from Deer Park, faces counts of shop theft and failing to stop a vehicle at police direction.

Despite what social media has said, Howard Leigh is alive and well. Picture Twitter

Howie does a Mahanga

Howard Leigh is NOT dead, despite social media posts to that effect last week.

Howard, whose passport and tax file almost certainly carry the name Howard L. Watkin, is the former Sunday newspaper sports reporter who has moonlighted as main event ring announcer at Melbourne boxing matches for several decades.

It has been Howard’s regular job to announce from centre-ring any recent deaths among the boxing fraternity. Which is why, circa 2003, when someone told him that the much-loved Maori fighter Kahu Mahanga had died, he did the right thing at the regular Knox fight night in Bayswater.

Boxing legend Kahu Mahanga.

Some recall that the fight crowd stood for a minute’s silence, which was fair enough, because Mahanga enjoyed much respect on both sides of the Tasman as the crowd-pleasing puncher who once KO’d world class middleweight Tony Mundine at Festival Hall.

News of his death came as a wonderful surprise to the real Kahu Mahanga, who was alive and well and working as a school janitor in Darwin.

It turns out, to the embarrassment of everyone else concerned, that another Maori joker had quietly assumed Mahanga’s name after arriving in Melbourne and had even married and had children. Having started it, he couldn’t admit the porkie, and it took on a life of its own.

Presumably, the imposter never went to the fights because he got away with it for years, right up until he died and his family innocently ran death notices using the only name they knew him by.

It wasn’t funny for them, of course. But the real Kahu Mahanga had a great laugh. He was last known to be living happily in Wanneroo in Western Australia. If he is still above the canvas, he turned 78 last month, 21 years after his “death.”

Art in a Gippsland cafe. Picture: Supplied

Hands off the Full Monty!

A Deadline spy has spotted this piece of art in a Gippsland cafe. The advice to customers seems reasonable.

This reminds us of the anatomically correct (but possibly politically incorrect) life-size bronze that graced the living area of the splendid bayside home of Darryn Lyons, former Geelong mayor and once an ace Fleet St paparazzo.

Unlike the Gippsland sculpture, the one in the Lyons den was not only the full monty but full length, with the model touching toes. In the interests of good taste, Lyons’ partner would casually drape a scarf over it.

Then there was the excellent South Melbourne eating establishment named Industri run by the excellent former proprietor of the Botanical Hotel. For years, the walls of the original Industri premises in Ferrars St featured a series of photographs of a headless female nude.

The head might have been missing but everything else was present. Had they been in glossy colour in a magazine rack they might have been labelled soft porn but they were black and white matt so they were art.

The most interesting aspect of the photographs, taken by an arty chef who worked in the kitchen, was that the model was a well-known Melbourne current affairs host.

Former Victoria Police detective Paul Robson is the latest to fall victim to Nigerian scammers.

The real Robbo

Talking of Robsons, former Victoria Police detective Paul Robson is the latest to fall victim to those serial pests, Nigerian scammers.

Mr Robson inadvertently gave away his Facebook account access recently when the online shysters posed as one of his mates asking for the pass code.

It has resulted in an extended period of drama for the man who spent decades on the force and a considerable amount of time since, helping others.

It would be bad enough if it was just a personal page but it is something of a meeting place for ex-members with post-traumatic stress disorder.

For those who want to find the genuine article, the distinctive new Robson profile photo is of a maroon CMX1100 motorcycle.

There’s a “thin blue line” baseball cap where the front wheel should be.