Real estate agent, alleged bikies and associates arrested over link to Sydney barber shop shooting
A real estate agent and alleged bikies and associates have been arrested following a brazen daylight shooting at a barber shop.
A real estate agent and alleged bikies and associates have been arrested following a police investigation into a brazen daylight shooting at a Sydney barber shop.
Six men were arrested as a series of 12 search warrants were executed across Sydney’s inner west and southwest on Thursday as well as one search warrant at an address at Broadbeach Waters on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Police allege a criminal syndicate involved in drug dealing and kidnapping conspiracies is linked to a shooting in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west.
One of the men arrested alongside the alleged bikies was Sydney real estate agent Yianni Karakikes.
Mr Karakikes, 31, was arrested in Dulwich Hill and charged with supplying commercial quantities of a prohibited drug, organising a drug premises and participating in a criminal group.
He is not accused of being involved in the shooting at the Marrickville store last year.
Mr Karakikes was refused bail to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on Friday.
During property searches, police allegedly seized more than $550,000 worth of luxury watches and jewellery, eight vehicles and a motorcycle, more than $25,000 in cash, drugs with a street value of $12,000, electronic devices and bikie gear.
The arrests follow an investigation into the shooting at a Marrickville barber last year that left two men in hospital after they were shot in the chest and buttocks.
The six men arrested over links to the criminal syndicate have been charged with offences related to kidnapping, failing to provide evidence, criminal group membership, illicit drug possession and dealing, attempted murder, stalking and domestic violence.
A Sans Souci man, 45, was charged with a kidnapping conspiracy offence, supplying commercial quantities of a prohibited drug, participating in a criminal group and failure to supply digital evidence.
Another Sans Souci man, 39, was charged with possessing prohibited drugs, prescribing a restricted substance, failing to provide digital evidence and participating in a criminal group.
At a Lakemba address, a 28-year-old was charged with failing to provide digital evidence and dishonestly interfering with/ copying a unique identifier for a vehicle.
At Broadbeach Waters in Queensland, a 42-year-old was arrested and is expected to be charged with participating in a criminal group.
At Burwood Police Station in Sydney’s inner west, a 47-year-old man was arrested and charged with two counts of shooting with intent to murder, a kidnapping conspiracy, supplying commercial quantities of a prohibited drug, dealing with the proceeds of crime, stalking and intimidation, domestic violence and knowingly directing the activities of a criminal group.
He was refused bail and will appear in Burwood Local Court on Friday.
Police will allege that the 47-year-old was not the gunman in last year’s Marrickville shooting but was a part of the joint criminal enterprise involved in the planning and carrying out of the crime.
Following the July shooting in 2023, police located two burnt-out vehicles linked to the crime in Marrickville and neighbouring Dulwich Hill.
Another burnt-out car was found in Sydney’s west two days later at Smithfield.
Three men were charged in relation to the shooting in November last year.
A vest from the Comanchero motorcycle club was seized as part of the arrests.
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