George Marrogi: How he reached the top of Middle Eastern organised crime

George Marrogi reached the top of Middle Eastern organised crime through violence, cunning and his willingness to wield a weapon.

Middle Eastern organised crime is an unstable jungle of fluid alliances and dangerous grudges.

It is driven by the dollar and only the strong, cunning and well-connected reach the top.

George Marrogi’s reputation for violence and ruthlessness were to make him one of the MEOC sphere’s most powerful figures.

Marrogi was by no means the top man but he had money, power and was not afraid to “get on the tools” to impose his will.

In short, everybody came to know who Marrogi was as he took his place in what one astute MEOC observer describes as a “war of attrition”.

“It’s the last man standing out there. It’s pretty fickle,” the source told the Herald Sun.

“It’s just doing whatever needs to be done to get the deal through.”

Marrogi’s many connections and his frequently high-risk dealings, en route to power and wealth, show just how volatile that environment is.

George Marrogi became a powerful Middle Eastern organised crime figure.

Nabil Maghnie and Marrogi were once on good terms until a bitter falling out. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

He was once on good terms with the equally dangerous and trigger-happy Nabil Maghnie but that could never last.

They notoriously punched on inside Crown casino in a brutal fracas which saw both banned from the complex.

On September 22, 2016, Maghnie was shot in a near-fatal ambush as he sat in a car somewhere in the northern suburbs.

Maghnie was able to return fire before, critically injured, he drove himself to hospital to be patched up.

The matter was not reported to police by Maghnie but they got wind of it, anyway.

The suspect list started and finished with Marrogi but, with Maghnie refusing to make a statement, no charges were ever laid.

The Maghnie attack came a year after outlaw bikie associate Khaled Abouhasna was shot dead in a Mercedes-Benz in the driveway of his mother’s Altona Meadows home in April, 2015.

There had been a view – accurate or otherwise – that Marrogi was responsible for the killing of Abouhasna in the 2am ambush.

The possibility was certainly later discussed by a man called The Mentor, who had been sitting next to Abouhasna in the Merc.

Khaled Abouhasna (right) was shot in a car in his mother’s driveway.

Jesse Marrogi and girlfriend Sabrine Maghnie.

The Mentor, a veteran heroin dealer whose real name cannot be published for legal reasons, was once a close associate of Marrogi and a key player in his rise.

He was, for many years, a priority organised crime target, in part because he schooled and equipped younger men to commit horrific armed robberies for his own gain.

At one point, The Mentor had some kind of professional relationship with George Marrogi’s brother, Jesse, and his mate, Ahmed Al-Hamza.

But The Mentor and George would ultimately fall out, pitting two of the underworld’s most dangerous figures against one another.

The split was underscored when a close relation of The Mentor traded shots with George during a frightening outbreak of gunfire in broad daylight in 2016.

One underworld figure says the word organised could easily be removed from the MEOC label and questions conventional perceptions about those involved.

“Everything is fluid, bro,” the source said.

“They jump from group to group. They’re not fighting for shit. It’s all about who wants to be the known strongest of the minute. Nothing to do with money or territory or drug trade. How funny and ironic is that?”

Whatever they were at odds over, Marrogi’s 2016 hit on Kadir Ors at the Campbellfield Plaza shopping centre was exceptionally brutal.

Kadir Ors was shot by Marrogi in Campbellfield in 2016.

Ors was said to have been friendly with Abouhasna and unhappy about what happened to his mate, but there is also talk of a friction over a drug deal with Marrogi that turned sour.

It unfolded only days after the mysterious Maghnie shooting, something that is likely to be no coincidence.

Sam Abdulrahium – the former Mongol bikie almost fatally shot in June this year – was talking to Ors at a bus stop near the Plaza when Marrogi pulled up in a Holden Commodore.

He fired solely at Ors, wounding him badly before finishing him off in front of an Officeworks store.

An Ors mate, Maytham Hamad, was at the scene and gave chase through the streets in a Mad Max-style pursuit which only ended when Marrogi stopped and opened fire at a roundabout.

Hamad later declined to help homicide investigators.

It is said that Marrogi was once close to Al Hamza, a shadowy MEOC gunman with a ruthless reputation.

Al Hamza is a formidable figure implicated in shootings, big time drug-dealing and gun trafficking.

Things appear to have turned sour around the time in 2016 when Al Hamza was shot near Campbellfield Plaza in an attack which, it could comfortably be said, will never be solved.

There is no suggestion Marrogi shot Al Hamza but police were later told associates of his may have had some knowledge of what happened.

Sam Abdulrahim was with Kadir Ors when Marrogi opened fire on him.

Abdulrahim’s bullet wounds from the attempted hit.

Al Hamza was last year acquitted of the murder of Anwar Teriaki, a young drug dealer murdered in Coronet Ave, Roxburgh Park, on August 9, 2017.

Maytham Hamad, who had chased Marrogi after the Ors shooting at Craigieburn Plaza, had been part of an assault on Teriaki in the minutes before the fatal shooting.

Marrogi clearly had criminal connections at the highest level by the middle of last decade.

In May, 2015, he was taped talking to the jailed Mohammed Oueida, one of Melbourne’s most potent MEOC figures of the past two decades.

The pair and a third man were heard talking in codes which police said represented threats to kill or harm another man.

Marrogi’s parole was cancelled as a result of the conversation.

A Corrections Victoria intelligence report stated that Marrogi was collecting money for Oueida.

It was around this time that he was also reportedly closely tied to Mongols bikie gang strongman Mohammad “Afghan Ali” Keshtiar.

Marrogi’s links to Sydney criminals had also expanded and there were persistent rumours of mischief north of the border.

At one stage, there was talk that a Rolls Royce vehicle belonging to a dodgy Harbour City identity had been found in a lockup belonging to Marrogi.

One of Marrogi’s most valued allies is said to be high-level drug trafficker Moshey Youkhana.

Youkhana – who came to Melbourne after a long criminal history in Sydney – was the ex-partner of Marrogi’s sister Meshilin.

He was the mastermind of an ill-fated plan to transfer 186kg of cocaine from a Chinese ship to a boat operated by his syndicate members off waters in southwestern Victoria.

The plan went belly-up when Youkhana’s team ran their boat onto a reef at Port Fairy.

Another comrade is Jimmey Barkho, a co-founder with Marrogi of the Notorious Crime Family gang.

Jimmey Barkho is a co-founder of Notorious Crime Family.

The pair grew up together and it was Barkho who allegedly took a more prominent role in the outside operations of NCF earlier this year.

That was as Marrogi found himself under intense police scrutiny, along with his girlfriend Antonietta Mannella.

Whether Mannella in involved in NCF is unclear but her surname would be familiar with those who closely follow crime in Melbourne, in particular as it relates to international drug smuggling.

Marrogi had two siblings, one of whom was his sister, Meshlin, who tragically died last year from Covid, aged 30.

Meshilin was said to have been the most savvy of the children.

Younger brother Jesse left Australia earlier this year but is believed to have since returned.

Ironically, he is the partner of Sabrine Maghnie, the daughter of George’s old sparring partner and shooting foe Nabil.

Jesse, 26, has long been of interest to law enforcement.

His most recent scrape came in 2020 when he pleaded guilty to dealing with the proceeds of crime and drug possession.

Unemployed but clearly a man of means, he had shelled out $131,954 for a Porsche Cayenne from an auction house.

“If I believed in karma, I’d be dead,” he once posted on social media.

George and Jesse were involved in a spectacular crash when an overtaking move went badly wrong on Korab Place, Roxburgh Park, in 2015.

Their out-of-control BMW smashed through a fence and bounced off cars and townhouses before coming to rest on its roof after a botched overtaking move.

Those inside didn’t know or care who was on board and, at one stage, it looked as though the Marrogis might wind up as damaged as the written-off BMW.

“Someone had called for a gun and, once the gun had been called for, everyone just kind of grabbed their kids and went back inside,” a witness said.

The smash was one of the first times George Marrogi had really made headlines, despite his years of criminal activity.

It was not to be the last.