Inside the $100,000 police operation to get crime boss Kazem Hamad out of Melbourne

Kazem Hamad, a crime kingpin blamed for unleashing a series of firebombing attacks on Melbourne tobacco stores, was such a handful for police they rolled out a $100,000 operation to get him out of the city.

Kazem Hamad was such a problem for police that they used a private jet to get him out of Melbourne and onto remote Christmas Island.

Operation Kaz was swift and cost up to an estimated $100,000 but, ultimately, did not eliminate the challenges Hamad posed.

In 2015, he was regarded by some detectives who investigated Middle-Eastern organised crimeas their biggest problem.

“He was public enemy number one. He caused us a lot of pain,” one investigator recalled.

Hamad shows off a sports car while on bail. Picture: Supplied

So, they were waiting one day that year when Hamad walked into a police station to report on bail.

He was grabbed, handcuffed and bundled into a four-wheel-drive which headed to the city’s northwest.

A confused Hamad was let out at Essendon Airport where a private jet was waiting, ready for takeoff.

He was quickly escorted aboard and immediately flown almost 5000km to the Christmas Island detention centre off Australia’s northwest.

Some police celebrated with beers that night but, by the next day, a Hamad hangover started to set in.

Reports filtered back from the Indian Ocean that he was operating four phones – commandeered from other inmates – and had rapidly become a significant issue.

“Someone rang and said, ‘who is this guy you sent’?” a police source said.

Kaz Hamad (left) at the footy with Toby Mitchell and Mongol bikie Tyrone Bell. Picture: Instagram

It was ultimately ruled that police did not have the right to send Hamad to Christmas Island and he was back in Melbourne about six weeks later.

Police had good reason to jump the gun.

Hamad was a high-level offender in his own right, regarded as someone who mentored young men in how to be criminals.

One investigator said he was smart, a kind of criminal entrepreneur.

“He was very street-smart. He ran rings around some of the other players,” that detective said.

One source says Hamad was a cunning man who can play a long game.

He said he had a philosophy that helping a young person in need with, for example, a $50 note, was a small price to pay for winning their loyalty in the long-term.

That’s not to say Hamad would not allegedly get hands-on himself when he saw the need, using powers of persuasion which police asserted were quite considerable to stop the wheels of justice.

Hamad had access to four phones while at the Christmas Island detention centre. Nathan Edwards

In December, 2010, he applied for bail over allegations of a particularly vicious kidnapping and associated assaults.

Prosecutors opposed the application alleging that he had a history of interfering with witnesses in cases where he was a person of interest.

They said that in January of that year, a man had come forward to police saying he had been kidnapped and assaulted by Hamad and another man, who had demanded $100,000.

That man later made a statement of no complaint.

Three months later, another was found beaten unconscious at his workplace.

It was alleged that witnesses had seen Hamad enter and leave the building around the time of the attack, but the victim was scared to go to police because he feared an escalation of the violence.

Again, the matter ended with a statement of no complaint.

Then, in June, a man was allegedly bashed and threatened.

That man said Hamad later called him and threatened to shoot him if he took the matter any further.

Ultimately, Hamad beat the kidnapping charge, which was struck out before reaching trial.