Rabii Zahabe charged with murder of Gavin ‘Capable’ Preston
A second man has been charged over the daylight assassination of notorious underworld figure Gavin “Capable” Preston outside a busy Keilor cafe.
Police & Courts
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A second man has been charged with the murder of Melbourne gangland figure Gavin “Capable” Preston.
Rabii Zahabe, 24, from Sydney was expected to appear before a New South Wales court on Thursday over the murder of Preston in September last year.
Preston, 50, was shot in a hail of 10 bullets as he sat outside busy Sweet Lulu’s Cafe on Old Calder Highway in Keilor at 10.20am on September 9.
A hit team pulled up and two men opened fire indiscriminately, killing Preston and forcing patrons at the venue to duck for cover.
Zahabe has been in custody at a NSW prison since October 10 last year when he was arrested on unrelated matters by the Police Robbery and Serious Crime Squad.
He was allegedly on bail when police swooped and a loaded gun was uncovered at the scene.
The weapon was allegedly behind the driver’s seat of a Toyota HiLux being used by Zahabe and 22-year-old associate Paxman Joe.
A police surveillance team had followed the pair earlier that day as they shopped at Westfield shopping centre in Liverpool, in Sydney’s west.
It was later alleged that Joe also had a revolver in a small Gucci man-bag slung around his neck at the time.
Zahabe is from the southwest Sydney suburb of Yagoona.
One man has already been charged over the murder of the 50-year-old Preston.
Jaeden Tito, 22, remains in custody after he was arrested last year in the case’s first major breakthrough.
Preston’s friend, Abbas Junior Maghnie, then 26, was sitting with him at the time and was severely wounded but survived the shocking daylight attack.
The South Morang man is the son of Preston’s old running mate, Nabil Maghnie.
Preston, from Taylors Hill, was a veteran Melbourne gangland figure, who, only months before his death, had been released from jail over the 2011 murder of drug dealer Adam Khoury.
Sources later told the Herald Sun he had severely upset the underworld applecart in the period after being freed and there was a $1m contract on his head.
Victoria Police Homicide Squad went to NSW and on Thursday charged Zahabe with murder.
“He is expected to appear at Bathurst Local Court this afternoon where police will make an application to extradite him to Victoria,” a police spokeswoman confirmed.
She added: “A 23-year-old Bradbury man was arrested with assistance from NSW Police in NSW on 25 October, 2023 in relation to this matter and subsequently charged with murder.
“He was extradited to Victoria and remanded in custody.”
Zahabe appears to be good friends with alleged Sydney organised crime figure Tarek Zahed.
His Instagram account, on which Zahabe describes himself as an entrepreneur, contains many pictures taken with the Comanchero strongman.
Zahed was based in Victoria until 2022 when he was shot and almost killed in a Sydney gym ambush which claimed the life of his brother Omar.
Zahabe and Tito were both accomplished rugby league players.
Zahabe played for the Greenacre Tigers and in 2018 was good enough to be selected in the NRL club Canterbury Bulldogs’ SG Ball Summer Cup squad.
Tito was named in the Dogs’ 2015 under-15 summer development squad.
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