Who was behind the deadly hit on Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim
Kazem Hamad has taken a wrecking ball to Melbourne’s underworld and on Tuesday the strong mail was that Sam Abdulrahim was the latest victim of his demolition project.
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Kazem Hamad has taken a wrecking ball to Melbourne’s underworld like no one before him.
On Tuesday, the strong mail was that Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim was the latest victim of his demolition project.
Hamad has up-ended the crime landscape in the year-and-a-half since he was released from prison and deported back to Iraq.
He immediately set about squaring up with his enemies, chief among them Abdulrahim.
Working remotely, Hamad has torched scores of dodgy tobacco shops and made more money from standover rackets than anyone could confidently put a number on.
He is under investigation for ordering high-level crimes including murder, arson and extortion.
It is no secret Hamad hated the former Mongol bikie with a passion, and that was long before they butted heads over control of Victoria’s lucrative tobacco black market.
He blamed Abdulrahim for setting up his friend Kadir Ors in a 2016 gangland execution carried out by feared triggerman George Marrogi.
“Kaz (was) after him for setting up Kadir. He wanted him dead,” one underworld source said.
That is not to say Hamad would be the only candidate to have taken out Abdulrahim.
Organised crime figure Ahmed Al Hamza left Australia in mid-2022, around the time Abdulrahim was wounded in a near-fatal ambush while attending his cousin’s funeral at Fawkner Cemetery.
The Herald Sun revealed last month that Al Hamza, a close ally of Hamad, has built colossal wealth since heading offshore.
One source mused on Tuesday that a man with a $1m Richard Mille watch on his wrist can fund all manner of mayhem back here.
But, in the end, homicide squad detectives are trained to keep an open mind and there are other possible suspects and motives.
Hamad and Al Hamza may have wanted Abdulrahim dead but that does not mean they were behind the events in the underground car park at Preston.
A man who lived the confrontational life of Abdulrahim would have made plenty of enemies, some with long memories and capable of organising the contract killing at the Quest.
The murder was not one of the gangland’s great surprises but it will take plenty of unravelling.
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