By Amber Schultz, Clare Sibthorpe and Penry Buckley
The brother of an alleged major drug kingpin has been charged over a plot to murder a rival underworld figure, with police describing him as the “co-ordinator” of the planned contract killing.
Detectives allege Omar Haouchar was behind the conspiracy to gun down gangland figure Andre Kallita in the Sydney CBD in December 2023.
Omar Haouchar has been charged with conspire and agreed to murder any person following an alleged attempted hit on an underworld figure.Credit: NSW Police
Omar is the brother of feared crime figure Bilal Haouchar, the alleged commander of an international billion-dollar drugs, guns and tobacco syndicate.
The 32-year-old was arrested on Thursday morning during a vehicle stop in the south Sydney suburb of Miranda. Police executed a search warrant at a home in the Sutherland Shire area, where items were seized.
He is the sixth man to be arrested under Strike Force Barralier. Five have already been charged and remain before the courts.
Organised Crime Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Peter Faux said five of those men were surveilling Kallita to work out “a pattern of life” and some were the planned shooters.
Kallita, who police claim is linked to another organised crime network, has since left Australia and is residing abroad.
“This male today, we’re alleging is the co-ordinator of the intended plot,” Faux said.
“He was responsible for putting together the part of the contract in relation to the murder of [Kallita].
“We’ll be alleging that the motivation behind this murder plot was organised crime related and potentially drug-related.”
Omar is the brother of Bilal Haouchar (pictured), the alleged commander of a billion-dollar crime syndicate.Credit: Facebook
Faux anticipated there would be more arrests.
“Unfortunately, with organised crime groups and large quantities of prohibited drugs, there’s always going to be conflict, and that conflict will quite often be serious conflict, and the most serious form of conflict being murders or intended murders,” he said.
Brother Bilal – one of the state’s most-wanted men – fled Australia for Lebanon and has since been arrested in Beirut. He was last seen in Australia boarding a business class flight to Beirut in September 2018. He has not been charged in Australia and remains in custody in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, another Haouchar sibling Nedal was arrested in November 2023 at Sydney’s International Airport. He was charged with large commercial cocaine supply and dealing with millions of dollars worth of suspected proceeds of crime, and remains before the courts.
A fourth brother, Osman, lost his eye in a drive-by shooting of the family’s house in Merrylands in 2008.
Osman is not alleged to be part of the Lebanese criminal syndicate and has not been charged with any offence.
However, he previously made headlines after being questioned by the Australian Federal Police for a visit to the Turkish-Syrian border, where he claimed he was doing humanitarian work.
At the time, police wanted to speak to Osman over the shooting of Michael Ibrahim in 2015, suspecting tension amid their families, but he was never charged.
One-eyed Osman Haouchar, who is not accused of any wrongdoing.
While many of the major players in the alleged Haouchar syndicate have been arrested or fled abroad, police have since homed in on those left on Australian shores.
Affluent waterfront suburb Drummoyne became the unlikely focus of this effort in April last year, with confused locals arriving home from work to find armed police in helmets and bulletproof vests on their streets.
Omar Haouchar’s Drummoyne home was raided as police carried out a firearm prohibition compliance check. He was compliant and no charges were laid.
Strike Force Raptor officers storm Drummoyne mansions last year.Credit: NSW Police
Haouchar fronted Sutherland Local Court on Thursday, where he was refused bail to appear on March 6.
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