Slain drug lord Alen Moradian linked to four gangland murders

The notorious Iraqi drug kingpin gunned down in a Bondi carpark on Tuesday was linked to at least four other gangland murders in recent years.

The notorious Iraqi drug kingpin gunned down in a Bondi carpark on Tuesday was linked to at least four other gangland murders in recent years, according to a report.

It comes as a gun is recovered from a partially burnt-out Porsche near the crime scene, potentially holding the key to solving the crime.

Alen Moradian, 48, a convicted cocaine trafficker likened by his wife to TV mafia boss Tony Soprano, was shot dead in an Audi while sitting in an underground carpark at Bondi Junction at around 8am on Tuesday morning.

The killing of Moradian, who had links with the Comanchero outlaw bikie gang, is the biggest in the two-and-a-half year Sydney gangland war.

Alen Moradian being unloaded from a prison van in 2007.

As police brace for reprisals and attempt to pinpoint which underworld group or individuals could be responsible, a gun recovered from a torched luxury car could hold the key to solving the case.

A grey Porche Macan was found on a quiet street a few minutes away. Police believe the two killers tried and failed to torch the vehicle, managing only to partially damage the interior.

The gun was located inside the car on Tuesday afternoon.

A second torched vehicle, found 6km away on McPherson Lane in Zetland, has also been linked to the fatal incident.

The Holden Commodore was completely engulfed by a fire between 8.30am and 8.50am on Tuesday, neighbours told NCA NewsWire.

Locals Ulrich and Keiran, whose garage backs onto the quiet lane, said there were at least eight explosions as the car was engulfed in flames which reached 10m high.

“We were worried there might be someone in there but it was too hot to open the garage door,” Ulrich explained.

“All we could see was billowing smoke and it was shooting fire everywhere.”

The burnt-out vehicle was set alight behind their garage but the pair initially thought their neighbour’s garage was on fire, because of the proximity of the inferno.

“The whole place shook” when the car exploded multiple times, shocking Ulrich and Keiran.

Another neighbour, Tony, told NCA NewsWire he heard a number of explosions and smelled the acrid smoke immediately.

“They’d done a job on it,” he said.

They obviously had some serious accelerant in there. It went up very quickly.”

Police found a burnt out-car in Zetland. Another car, a Porsche that was only partially torched and was closer to the scene, had a gun inside of it. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Drug kingpin’s links to gangland murders

The Daily Telegraph reports that Moradian had links to at least four of the 17 other murders that have occurred on Sydney’s streets since 2020.

Marvin Oraiha, 24, was shot dead outside his Elizabeth Hills home last month. He had partied with Moradian in a CBD hotel room before being killed and police will probe any links.

According to the newspaper, Moradian was also known to be an associate of three other victims.

They are gangland mum Lametta Fadlallah, 48, who was gunned down inside a car in Panania last August, former crime boss Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad, 39, who was shot and killed leaving a friend’s Greenacre home in April 2022, and Mejid Hamzy, 44, the notorious underworld figure whose October 2020 shooting outside his Condell Park home triggered a period of escalating gun violence across Sydney.

The Daily Telegraph reports Moradian had known Fadlallah for years and his wife Natasha had once gone into business with her.

Lametta Fadlallah, Marvin Oraiha, Mahmoud Ahmad and Mejid Hamzy.

He became enemies with Ahmad while behind bars on drug trafficking charges between 2007 and 2017, with underworld sources telling the newspaper Moradian was rumoured to have put up some of the money to have him killed last year.

Hamzy’s death, meanwhile, was believed to have been linked to the alleged theft of 400kg of cocaine from the Comancheros.

That incident led to “The Commission”, a controversial effort by underworld players to tax and control importation of drugs into NSW, according to the newspaper, which put a large target on Moradian’s back.

Sydney has been gripped by a two-and-a-half year gangland war. Picture: NSW Police

Police at Bondi Junction on Tuesday. Picture: Nikki Short/NCA NewsWire

Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said police believed “at least two” people were involved in the shooting, which had “the hallmarks of being an organised crime murder”.

“We’re saying this is a well-planned and executed murder of a high-level criminal identity,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

He confirmed Moradian was a “major player” in the organised crime network who had “strong, high-level links” to the Comanchero bikie gang.

“He was a high-level identity in the criminal network, so he was a high-level target for these shooters,” Superintendent Doherty said.

“He obviously had a big target on his back.”

— with NCA NewsWire