Powerful Melbourne crime figure pulling strings from afar

One of Melbourne’s most powerful underworld figures doesn’t even live in the city — the 25-year-old renounced his Australian citizenship and controls the criminal network from the Middle East.

Ahmed Al-Hamza is said to be controlling a Melbourne crime network remotely. Picture: Supplied

One of Melbourne’s most powerful underworld figures is a 25-year-old man who does not even live in the city.

Gangland sources say Ahmed Al Hamza has renounced his Australian citizenship but that his word – in some quarters – is law here.

He is one of the faces of modern transnational crime, remotely controlling his Melbourne network from the Middle East.

Less than a decade ago he was a juvenile offender causing massive headaches for Victoria Police armed crime investigators.

Now, the little boy who grew up loving martial arts is regarded as one of Australian law enforcement’s biggest targets.

There is persistent talk in Middle Eastern organised crime circles that he is the subject of an Interpol blue notice.

Ahmed Al-Hamza at the wheel of a luxury Lamborghini sports car in Dubai. Picture: Supplied

Such a notice means information would be collected by the international agency about his location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation.

Melbourne underworld sources say he is heavily involved in the illicit tobacco industry, challenging more established players as conflict over market share has grown in recent times.

Figures from both sides of the law enforcement fence say Al Hamza is intelligent, charismatic and has grown into one of the real forces of organised crime in the northern suburbs.

Despite his absence, he is said to retain a large number of loyalists in the MEOC world.

“He has like 40 to 50 guys under him from the north,” one gangland source said.

“He is extremely smart for a young guy. He watches every step … very calculated. He was always able to stand on his own feet.”

Al Hamza left Melbourne last year and headed for the opulent city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Al Hamza loved martial arts as a child. Source: Twitter

It was in the turbulent period in which former Mongol Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim was shot and almost died after being ambushed at Fawkner Cemetery as he attended his cousin’s funeral.

Al Hamza was months later pictured relaxing at a top-notch Mexican restaurant in Dubai with two Melbourne women and photographed at the wheel of a Lamborghini sports car.

More recently, he is said to have been spending time in Kuwait where he has some influential local contacts.

There is talk of luxurious holidays in Bodrum, a Turkish port town on the Aegean Sea.

Unlike some in the modern organised crime world, Al Hamza values privacy and has a strong aversion to social media.

“Ahmed is … very silent and doesn’t expose himself. He operates very smart,” one man with knowledge of his activities said.

He learned many tricks from an older, more experienced criminal and is known to be a keen student of police methodology.

Al Hamza’s reputation for carrying guns and being prepared to use them had made him a feared presence before he jetted overseas.

For some time a few years back, he was suspected of doing “freelance” work for the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang.

He was acquitted of murder two years ago in the Supreme Court and is a suspect in at least one non-fatal shooting.

Al Hamza may be feared but he has also found himself a target over the years.

Ahmed Al Hamza (right) at a Mexican restaurant in Dubai. Picture: Supplied

In 2016 and aged just 18, he was shot in the thigh at Campbellfield, the emergency call for help coming from the Al-Diwan Lebanese restaurant on Mahoneys Rd.

That shooting may have been intentionally non-fatal but, later, police were told that a gangland triggerman had accepted a murder contract on his life.

Al Hamza – who is banned from carrying a gun – would in 2018 tell organised crime police that a pistol found in a fire cabinet near his property was for his own protection.

At the time of that bust, Al Hamza was living in a luxury Docklands apartment where he was holding weapons which had been stolen in a dramatic armed robbery on the O’Reilly’s Firearms store in Thornbury.

He and an associate were observed by police transferring guns concealed in pillow cases into an Audi motor vehicle.

Al Hamza has a longstanding relationship with two brothers who have for the past decade been linked to heavy organised crime activity.

Both have a history of gun crime and have been the subject of homicide squad inquiries.

The older brother – with whom Al Hamza has been linked for over a decade – has maintained considerable underworld influence despite spending recent years in prison for high-level drug offending.

Al Hamza once had a strong relationship with Jesse Marrogi (left), the younger brother of George Marrogi (right).

In 2016, Al Hamza was wounded in a shooting ambush outside the Al-Diwan restaurant in Campbellfield.

He had during that period been linked to a heroin syndicate involving older, more senior gangland figures.

Al Hamza served as an “odd-jobs man” for the gang, cementing a friendship with the older brother which remains strong.

That sibling was recently released from prison and has been deported but those in the underworld believe he has been a player in some significant recent events back in Melbourne.

There was allegedly some connection between those brothers and the August, 2017, murder of 21-year-old Anwar Teriaki.

Al Hamza was charged with firing the fatal shots at Teriaki as he was cornered in the porch of his Roxburgh Park home after being chased through the streets.

He pleaded not guilty and two years ago, he was acquitted by a Supreme Court jury.

Separately, Al Hamza’s once-strong relationship with members of the Marrogi family is believed to have become fraught over the years.

He was once close to George Marrogi’s younger brother Jesse but the Herald Sun understands that is no longer the case.

When Marrogi associate Korey Kesici was shot dead outside his Mickleham home in May last year, one theory to emerge was that the 22-year-old had become a target for talking to the Al Hamza camp.