Inside the rise, fall and rebirth of Middle Eastern crime gang Brothers for Life
From its inception in a New South Wales maximum security prison, one of Sydney’s most violent gangs is threatening to take hold in Melbourne. We chart the twists and turns that brought it to Victoria.
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A notorious gang being revived by an ex-bikie turned boxer — who recently survived a failed hit — has a history kneecapping and shooting its own members and waged war with one of Sydney’s most notorious crime families.
The Herald Sun revealed earlier this month that Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim was a key player behind the rebirth of Brothers for Life – a violent Middle Eastern Crime gang.
But amid plans to relaunch the gang and expand its operations across Melbourne and South Australia, its new leader escaped unharmed in the third attempt on his life in almost as many years.
Last Saturday, gunmen lured Abdulrahim out of his Thomastown home by torching his parents’ cars in nearby Brunswick. As he raced out his front door to lend assistance, gunmen opened fire, missing him with 17 bullets.
The attempted hit came after a fresh spate of tobacco shop arsons reignited the battle for control over the Victoria’s illicit tobacco market following a two-month hiatus.
Underworld sources said the attempted hit crossed major unspoken boundaries once widely observed in criminal circles, with the families of enemies left untouched and parties preferring to settle their scores through public shootouts and group attacks.
With close ties between Abdulrahim and former BFL member Mohammed “Little Crazy” Hamzy unmasked, this is the violent legacy of a gang behind two murders and 11 shootings that was declared dead by police, until now.
2007
Convicted murderer Bassam Hamzy, now aged 45, establishes Brothers for Life from inside Lithgow Correctional Centre with his cousins, Mohammed and Ghassan.
Authorities discover notes about the gang inside his cell along with several mobile phones he used to attempt to run a drug syndicate.
Hamzy has been imprisoned since 1999 after shooting dead teenager Kris Toumazis during a night out in Sydney the previous year when he himself was just 18 years old.
He is incarcerated at NSW’s most secure prison, Goulburn Supermax.
2011
BFL replaces the disbanded youth street gang, the Muslim Brotherhood Movement, in Auburn in Sydney’s western suburbs – where several well-known families linked to BFL reside.
BFL gains traction among former MBM members and a former Rebels bikie.
October 2012
Internal feuds between the gang’s Afghani chapter in Blacktown and Lebanese chapter in Bankstown begin when fellow BFL members kneecap Khaled Khalil on October 8.
A week later, BFL member and Bassam’s cousin Mohammed “Little Crazy” Hamzy shoots dead fellow member Yehye Amoud, 27, and injures a second man while the pair is seated inside a car on Greenacre Rd in Greenacre, 19km west of Sydney’s CBD.
A court hears in 2016 that Hamzy opened fire on the two men because his estranged wife had been called a “slut” and a “gold digger”.
On October 17, gunmen target a home in Winston Hills, 35 km northwest of Sydney’s CBD, believed to be linked to BFL members.
February 2013
On February 8, NSW Police’s Operation Apollo charges five junior BFL members who allegedly attacked an innocent 39-year-old drunk man in Haymarket in inner Sydney in 2010.
The next day, BFL members kneecap a fellow unnamed member at a meeting at Bass Hill over a suspected drug debt.
The man reportedly drives himself to hospital before becoming a police informant known as Witness A.
On February 19, Witness A gives police the first inside look inside BFL’s operations, resulting in two arrests over the Winston Hills drive-by shooting and Witness A’s kneecapping.
October 29 2013
27-year-old Mahmoud Hamzy, the cousin of BFL founder Bassam Hamzy, is shot dead in Revesby Heights in a botched hit on Mohammed’s life.
Fellow member Omar Ajaj, 24, is wounded.
November 2013
Further internal feuding results in BFL member Michael Odisho getting shot six times in the arms and thighs outside his mother’s Winston Hills home on November 3. He survives.
The following day, Blacktown chapter members attack the home of Bankstown member Masood Zakaria, shooting his 14-year-old sister in the gunfire.
The gunmen hit the teenage girl in the back with a shotgun.
Surviving the attack, she also suffered injuries to her spine, lungs and chest.
On November 7, police swoop on major BFL members, including 28-year-old Mohammed Hamzy, solving the initial mystery surrounding the identity of the gunman involved in the Greenacre shooting.
December 2013
Former Brothers for Life Blacktown chapter leader Farhad Qaumi and his brother, Mumtaz Qaumi, murder standover man Joe Antoun, who is shot in front of his wife and children.
The pair are later found guilty, and a court hears that they had accepted a contract to kill Mr Antoun in exchange for money related to the purchase of a kebab shop.
Another man, Witness L, had already pleaded guilty and was sentenced over the murder.
October 2014
NSW Police’s Middle Eastern Organised Crime squad charges a slew of BFL members over firearms, weapons and animal cruelty offences.
On October 27, four people are charged over Mahmoud Hamzy’s murder.
November 2014
NSW Police declares BFL defunct with all of its key members either behind bars or allegedly murdered by their own.
More than 300 charges are laid against 21 members over extortions, two murders, kneecappings and violent bashings.
April 2016
The shooting death of Safwan Charbaji, a known associate of the rival Alameddine crime family, on April 9 is believed to be the beginning of a gangland war between the Hamzy and Alameddine families.
On April 29, Hamzy associate and standover man Walid “Wally” Ahmad is gunned down outside the Centro cafe at Bankstown Central Shopping Centre.
No one is ever charged over his death, which went to inquest in 2020 where a coroner concluded his death was a homicide.
October 25 2016
Notorious hitman Hamad Assaad is shot dead by two gunmen at his Georges Hall home in Sydney’s west.
Mejid Hamzy, the elder brother of BFL founder Bassam Hamzy, is suspected of being involved in the slaying, which is believed to have sparked a spate of shootings that decimated the Hamzy family.
October 2020
Mejid is shot dead outside his Condell Park home, just south of Bankstown, on October 19.
41-year-old Ezzeddine Omar was charged over the alleged murder before prosecutors withdrew the charge.
Omar instead pleads guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder.
June 16 2021
Bassam Hamzy’s cousin Bilal is shot six times in a drive-by shooting as he leaves the Kid Kyoto restaurant in Sydney’s CBD.
He dies from his injuries in hospital.
October 20 2021
Low level member of the Hamzy network Salim Hamze, 18, and his innocent father Toufik, 64, are shot dead in a “retribution-style, drug turf-style” hit as they sit inside a red ute in Guildford, 25km west of Sydney’s CBD.
January 5 2022
Ghassan Amoun, a notorious gangland figure with links to BFL and younger brother of Bilal Hamzy, is shot in the head while sitting in a BMW outside a western Sydney apartment building.
2023
Mohammad “Little Crazy” Hamzy (LC) is released from prison after serving his sentence for Amoud’s death and shooting the second man in Greenacre.
May 2024
Former Mongols bikie and prominent boxer Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim is spotted on holiday with Mohammed “Little Crazy” Hamzy.
Days later, the Herald Sun reveals the pair’s close ties, and Abdulrahim’s plans to revive BFL, this time expanding its reach in Melbourne and South Australia.
May 24 2024
Gunmen attempt to shoot dead Abdulrahim outside his Thomastown home in the early hours, firing 17 rounds at the underworld figure.
He escapes unharmed, fighting off his attackers before rushing to his parents’ home in Brunswick where assailants had torched their cars in a bid to lure Abdulrahim out of his home just before opening fire.
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