New crime gang Notorious Crime Family emerges from prison

Despite the majority of its members locked behind bars, a powerful Middle Eastern crime gang with links to bikie gangs is quickly growing across Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

A powerful Middle Eastern crime gang, with members in and out of jail, has emerged as a feared force in Melbourne’s underworld.

A powerful Middle Eastern crime gang, with members in and out of jail, has emerged as a feared force in Melbourne’s underworld.

Notorious Crime Family, or NCF, is the latest player to enter the city’s crime scene.

The Herald Sun has been told members are linked to drug trafficking, standover rackets and violence including shootings and bashings.

The gang, which uses the logo 11:11, is believed to have started in the state’s prison system about a year ago.

It has since gathered membership on the outside, most of them men from Melbourne’s northern suburbs. A source claimed about 10 members were in the community and up to 20 were still behind bars.

Those on the outside appear to have a taste for the good life with social media images showing them with luxury cars, expensive motorcycles and designer clothes.

Those on the outside appear to have a taste for the good life.

A source claimed about 10 members were in the community and up to 20 were still behind bars.

The Herald Sun has been told members are involved in emerging clothing and construction firms. Some NCF members are suspected of links to prominent bikie gangs.

One of the men named as a major player in NCF has a long criminal history of violence and large-scale drug offending.

He is regarded as an influential player in Melbourne’s Middle Eastern organised crime scene and well connected in the outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG) sphere. He was a bitter foe of gangland strongman Nabil Maghnie, murdered in Epping in January.

He is also known to have strong links to leading Middle Eastern Organised Crime (MEOC) figures in Sydney.

That city has for many years had an array of MEOC crime gangs, including the feared Brothers for Life and Assyrian Kings.

Victoria Police said it was aware of NCF and continued to work with other agencies in a national approach to MEOC and OMCG enforcement.

Gun violence has been a major issue in the northern suburbs for almost two decades with frequent shootings and drive-by incidents.

That city has for many years had an array of MEOC crime gangs, including the feared Brothers for Life

Former Mongols bikie Shane Bowden was wounded in a drive by shooting in Epping in July – three months before his execution-style murder on the Gold Coast.

Apprentice tradie Adrian Pacione was shot dead in a friend’s home in Lalor in July. In October, police charged Tahmid Rahman, 18, Adam Tiba and Abdullah Hammoud, both 21, with his murder.

The most notorious families include the Tibas, Haddaras and Kheirs, implicated in drive-by shootings, murders and large-scale drug trafficking dating to the early 2000s.

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