Notorious Sydney gang Brothers for Life re-born on Melbourne streets
Sydney police declared Brothers for Life — a gang behind a spate of shootings and violent attacks — dead a decade ago. But it’s now being revived on Melbourne’s streets.
Police & Courts
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Victorian underworld figures are believed to be reviving a notorious gang that once waged a bloody war on Sydney’s streets.
Brothers for Life was a Middle Eastern crime gang behind a spate of shootings and violent attacks fuelled by tensions among its own chapters before NSW police declared the gang dead when most of its members were either convicted or killed about a decade ago.
But the Herald Sun can reveal close ties between players in Melbourne’s underworld and former BFL member Mohammad “Little Crazy” Hamzy, who was last year released from prison after being convicted of the 2012 manslaughter of a rival gangster.
In an image obtained by the Herald Sun, Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim, a boxer and ex-Mongols bikie, and Hamzy were snapped smiling together poolside on what appeared to be a recent luxury getaway.
It is understood Abdulrahim is one of the key players behind the disbanded gang’s rumoured revival.
The disbanded gang had been linked to more than a dozen shootings involving rivals and its own members in Sydney.
One BFL member was kneecapped by fellow members in an assault that marked the beginning of the internal feuding.
NSW Police essentially crippled the group in 2013 when it swooped on key members, including a then-28-year-old Hamzy.
Despite reports of murder contracts being taken out against Hamzy and Abdulrahim, it is believed Abdulrahim is slated to head up operations in Victoria.
Dozens of other recruits in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide are believed to be made up of ex-bikies and Middle Eastern organised crime figures.
It is understood several former senior members from Sydney have close ties with up and coming members currently living in Melbourne.
Until the snap of Hamzy and Abdulrahim emerged, Hamzy was believed to be keeping a low profile overseas following his release, despite initial fears he would exact revenge for the alleged murders of five of his relatives who were killed while he was behind bars.
Hamzy earned the nickname “Little Crazy” for his fiery temper and penchant for violence.
The slayings all but ended the Hamzy family’s dominance on Sydney’s streets, where the Alameddine crime clan and the Comanchero bikie gang appear to have gained a stronghold over the city’s underworld.
Meanwhile, Abdulrahim has remained a prominent figure with strong links to the underworld in Victoria.
After the brazen drive-by shooting that left him with eight bullet wounds to his chest as he left his cousin’s Fawkner funeral in 2022, four businesses connected to him have gone up in flames in attacks police believed were linked to the war over Victoria’s illicit tobacco trade.
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