With enemies like his, it was a matter of when – not if – for Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim.
At 32 years old, the man known as “Suna” to his few remaining friends and allies was dangerously exposed after a lifetime of double-crossing many of the most powerful underworld players in Melbourne’s organised crime scene.
Underworld figure Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim in 2015.Credit: The Age
The underworld figure-turned-boxer was hated by his one-time bikie club, the Mongols, and senior-ranked commanders of the Comanchero, as well as a slew of rivals in the Middle Eastern organised crime scene. He was also a sworn enemy of stone-cold gangland players Nabil Maghnie and Gavin “Capable” Preston (who were both murdered but not by him).
At one time or another, each had threatened, bashed or tried to kill Abdulrahim, all of which he managed to survive by twisting and turning his allegiances, as well as a seemingly miraculous ability to survive shootings – recovering after being shot eight times in 2022 and avoiding a 17-bullet hail of gunfire in 2024.
There have been no fewer than 18 attacks staged against Abdulrahim – or directed at him by firebombing or shooting his friends and associates – since 2017.
There have been several more plots that never got that far, including two murder contracts allegedly put out by a top-ranked member of the Comanchero in the past few years.
But while the investigation is just starting into Abdulrahim’s execution outside a Preston serviced apartment on Tuesday, the focus will almost certainly be on the most long-standing and relentless of his enemies – new gangland kingpin Kazem “Kaz” Hamad.
For nearly a decade, Abdulrahim has been on the run from Hamad and his cousin Ahmed Al Hamza who have both become major players in the organised crime scene after making millions in illicit tobacco and drugs.
Both are now overseas, running a massive criminal enterprise from Iraq – and one of their major goals has been settling old scores.
The origin of the feud is unclear, but Abdulrahim has been on their wrong side since a tit-for-tat shooting war first erupted between the sides in 2015.
One rumour was the fallout began over a dispute about a car. Another is that Abdulrahim, even at just 23 years old, just couldn’t resist crossing the line.
Regardless of the reason, Abdulrahim was believed by Hamad’s crew to have been behind a drive-by shooting of Al Hamza’s family home.
Al Hamza allegedly responded by shooting up Abdulrahim’s Epping collision repair shop.
But it was on September 26, 2016, that Abdulrahim committed the act that made him an enemy for life, one that prompted Hamad and Al Hamza to launch a blitz of revenge attacks over the past two years after they emerged as major underworld players.
That day, Abdulrahim arranged to meet an up-and-coming drug trafficker called Kadir “KD” Ors in a shopping centre car park in Campbellfield.
Within minutes, gangland heavy George Marrogi arrived, pumping bullets into Ors and then getting back into his car to circle around to shoot him again.
Ors was a diehard member of the Hamad crew, as well as Kaz Hamad’s best friend.
It wasn’t long before rumours began to circulate that Abdulrahim was responsible for luring Ors into the spot for Marrogi to ambush.
By the end of Marrogi’s long run through the legal system, even Victoria’s Court of Appeal declared it believed Abdulrahim was involved in the set-up.
Abdulrahim then began a relationship with Ors’ widow, a move that incensed the Hamad crew when the full scale of his alleged betrayal became known.
What followed cannot all be laid at the feet of Hamad and Al Hamza, but they have been linked by police and underworld sources to many of the 18 separate attacks launched against Abdulrahim and his associates since 2017.
The most famous came in June 2022 when Abdulrahim was shot eight times while in a line of cars during a funeral outside a Fawkner cemetery.
Abdulrahim was targeted in a spate of firebombings and shootings after Hamad was released from prison and deported to Iraq in mid-2023, becoming the boss of a new criminal empire.
Hamad allegedly put a $1 million bounty on Abdulrahim and sent teams of arsonists and gunmen to make his life unliveable.
Abdulrahim’s home and his business interests in a gym and tobacco shop were first. Then it was any business even remotely associated with Abdulrahim – boxing venues where he was supposed to fight were burnt down; bars that planned to host his parties were torched.
In May 2024, Abdulrahim narrowly escaped an ambush at which he was shot at 17 times. This attack, which included torching a car at his parents’ house to draw him out and posting a back-up crew at a friend’s house in case he escaped, forced Abdulrahim into hiding.
He moved, moved, and moved again – between family properties and rentals in Melbourne, holiday spots in Bali, boxing training camps in Thailand – and did spot jobs working as a bodyguard in Malaysia.
Eventually, the “hit” teams would turn to striking at anyone they considered one of his allies – torching the business of a man who drove Abdulrahim to safety after he was shot in 2022; eventually shooting his associates and kidnapping the relatives of his associates for ransom.
But Abdulrahim, who was struggling to make ends meet after nearly six months on the run, eventually decided that he needed to be back in Melbourne, whatever the risk.
He had been in the city for less than a day and was probably certain he was still moving too fast for anyone to catch him.
But like Ors, the man he is believed to have lured to his death in 2016, Abdulrahim found himself exposed in a place almost no one was supposed to know he was.
The clock ran out about 10am on Tuesday.
Our Breaking News Alert will notify you of significant breaking news when it happens. Get it here.