Why Maytham Hamad is believed linked to conflict that has resulted in more than 50 firebombings

The flashy younger brother of deported Middle-eastern organised crime figure Kazem Hamad, Maytham, may have a short criminal record but he has a growing reputation, and a target on his back.

Maytham Hamad (centre) is only young but has been a formidable figure with powerful allies for years.

Three years ago, Maytham Hamad was a young man with a short criminal record and a growing reputation.

It was in 2021 and Hamad faced the Supreme Court over a baseball bat attack on a Roxburgh Park drug dealer, who would be shot dead by someone else minutes later.

The 2017 murder of Anwar Teriaki was a ruthless execution-style slaying, carried out as he cowered on a front porch after running 300 metres from two pursuers.

Iraqi-born Hamad was described in sentencing proceedings as a concrete finisher for a glass firm.

Labouring work was available to him upon release with an employer who had helpfully provided a positive reference.

Maytham Hamad. Picture: Supplied

CCTV released in the investigation of the murder of Anwar Teriaki.

The funeral of Anwar Teriaki.

But it seems unlikely that Hamad, who arrived in Australia with his family at age four, has spent too much time doing the hard yards on work sites.

The 28-year-old is the younger brother of Kazem Hamad, the feared Middle-eastern organised crime figure who, over the past year, has intervened in Melbourne’s illicit tobacco trade with literally explosive consequences.

“Kaz” was deported to Iraq in the middle of last year but it is Maytham who has stayed behind, allegedly coordinating his brother’s assault on rival operators and a lucrative extortion racket from the other side of the continent.

He is suspected by police of directing the “onshore activities” of the Hamad syndicate as it fights for the lion’s share of the lucrative and under-regulated outlaw smoke market.

That conflict has resulted in more than 60 firebombings of tobacco stores, businesses and homes.

Some have followed extortion demands and others targeted a range of underworld figures including Fadi Haddara, Sam Abdulrahim and Mohammed Oueida.

Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim. Picture David Geraghty

Dozens of getaway vehicles, many prestige models, have been incinerated after use by the arsonists.

It is viewed as some kind of minor miracle that none of the firebugs, business owners or adjacent residents have been killed or seriously injured in the mayhem.

Underworld sources say there have been indications that those on the wrong end of last year’s attacks are not going to accept victim status and are setting about getting square with the Hamads.

Four fires in West Australia this year are understood to have been carried out in retaliation against Hamad-aligned businesses, with Melbourne-based heavy hitters growing increasingly frustrated.

Maytham has denied his involvement in any illegal activity, but police regard him as an influential figure who is closely aligned to another person police allege is a key member of Hamad’s camp, Majid Alibadi.

A court last month heard of Maytham’s flashy, jetsetting adventures with Alibadi, who last month was bailed to a rehab facility while facing more than a dozen charges, including arson and extortion, over his alleged role in the tobacco wars.

The pair last year were spotted flying first class together to Dubai, where Kaz is believed to have spent time since being deported.

Kazem Hamad, before he was deported. Picture: Supplied

The younger Hamad brother and Alibadi allegedly kept one another in the loop about their ventures in an encrypted group chat called “The Crime Family Group”.

Maytham gave Alibadi $270,000 in cash for legal fees after he was arrested, the court was told.

The fact is that Maytham has been a formidable figure with powerful allies for years.

He has been close to foreign-based MEOC figure Ahmed Al Hamza, the man eventually acquitted of the Teriaki shooting at Roxburgh Park.

It was ultimately agreed that Hamad – who was also initially charged with murder – had not administered the baseball bat attack which preceded the fatal shots.

He would walk free after pleading guilty to intentionally causing injury, having already served 742 days on remand.

Hamad had a year earlier found himself part of a murder inquiry, though this time not as a suspect.

On the afternoon of September 26, 2016, he, well-connected drug dealer Kadir Ors and a third man arrived at the Campbellfield Plaza shopping centre car park in a white Jeep.

Soon after – as the others stayed in the Jeep – Ors met gangland figure Abdulrahim and another man for a chat at a bus stop.

At 3.24pm, a stolen red HSV Commodore suddenly pulled up.

Its driver, later proven to be George Marrogi, jumped out and shot Ors dead with two separate volleys of shots.

Hamad saw what had happened and chased the Commodore along Camp Rd at extreme speed, at one stage on the wrong side of the road.

Marrogi was ultimately forced to stop at a roundabout on Blair St and open fire on the Jeep so he could make good his escape.

It appears Hamad was subsequently happy to try to deal with the matter in his own way.

Homicide squad detectives who approached him for a statement came away with nothing.

He was also uncooperative when put before a magistrates’ court in a further attempt to elicit answers.

The Ors killing had fuelled ongoing hostility toward Marrogi and Abdulrahim who escaped with his life last month when gunmen opened fire at him outside his Thomastown home.

The Herald Sun understands those aligned with the Hamad crew have been met with threats in recent weeks.