‘When my time’s up, my time’s up’: How Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim became most hunted in Melbourne’s underworld

Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim couldn’t even sit down for a meal in Bali, more than 4000 kilometres from Melbourne, without being reminded he was a marked man.

Back home, the former bikie-turned-boxer was a man under siege – his businesses in ashes and a $1 million bounty on his head. The Australasian cruiserweight champion couldn’t even box in his own city because someone was burning down the venues.

Suleiman Abdulrahim, known as “Suna” to his friends, had been on the bustling tourist island for less than a day when he walked into that random cafe. A waitress came to his table to pass on what she thought was a helpful message.

“Your friend just called and said he knows you’re here. He’ll be here soon,” she supposedly told him.

Sam Abdulrahim on a beachside holiday.Credit: Instagram

It says something about Abdulrahim’s life in crime that there is no shortage of potential enemies who could have been at the other end of that line.

At just 32, Abdulrahim has the notoriety of being the most hunted man in Melbourne’s underworld – the target of no less than three murder contracts, a prison bashing, three assaults, a dozen firebombings and seven shootings, including narrowly surviving one attempted hit after being shot eight times, and another where he escaped a hail of 17 bullets.

“I’ve never seen anyone, ever, with so many death threats against him,” said an organised crime detective, who cannot be identified discussing police operations. “He’s made enemies everywhere.”

Among them have been some of the nation’s most powerful bikie clubs, an assortment of Middle Eastern gang factions, and some of the most dangerous individual players in Melbourne’s underworld, including Nabil Maghnie, Gavin “Capable” Preston, and, most recently, the new kingpin Kazem “Kaz” Hamad.

‘Sam “The Punisher” has enemies everywhere.’

Underworld source

Abdulrahim did not respond to a request for comment, and his lawyer declined to comment.

He has only spoken publicly about his life and activities three times – testifying at the murder trial of gangland boss George Marrogi, testifying during a lawsuit he filed against the state government, and in an interview on Sam Newman’s podcast You Cannot Be Serious in 2022.

The information used to chronicle Abdulrahim’s history and criminal activities has come from three police sources and four underworld sources, in addition to court documents and other records obtained by this masthead.

Famous for being infamous

Before he made his name in boxing as “The Punisher”, Suleiman Abdulrahim came to public attention because of a wild brawl and deadly car crash.

Both incidents were born out of his lack of impulse control, something that has dogged him throughout his life.

Suleiman Abdulrahim at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court after a fight there.Credit: Eddie Jim

In 2015, Abdulrahim had been waiting in the third-floor lobby of the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for his case to be called when he crossed paths with a rival, kickboxer Omar Bchinnati.

After being doused in capsicum spray to break up the fight, Abdulrahim was famously photographed shirtless while being hustled into a police divvy van on the courthouse steps.

Just four months later, he slammed his Ferrari 360 Spider into oncoming traffic while speeding up to 50 kilometres over the limit on a suburban street in Reservoir.

But this time, the then-23-year-old’s recklessness killed great-grandmother Muriel Hulett, 88, and injured 10 others, after the out-of-control Ferrari hit four other cars.

The incident seemed to have little impact on Abdulrahim, who racked up more driving offences while on bail and would eventually be arrested for possessing 138 grams of ice.

The scene of the fatal high-speed crash in Reservoir.Credit: Nine News

He had also become a minor player in Melbourne’s underworld, running with various Middle Eastern organised criminals and a bikie club.

In 2016, mini-wars between rival crews and bikie clubs erupted into regular shootings. “The Punisher” decided to back what would turn out to be the wrong side.

Abdulrahim ultimately put himself at the centre of one of these violent feuds with a perceived betrayal that has dogged him since.

That day at Officeworks

The most important thing to know about Abdulrahim is that most of his enemies were once friends.

That was the case with the bikie club he used to ride with in his 20s, before they fell out. The same goes for notorious underworld figure Nabil Maghnie, who dropped Abdulrahim after he supposedly failed to adequately back up the ultraviolent hard case during a brawl inside Crown casino.

“Sam ‘The Punisher’ has enemies everywhere. He’s pissed off so many people over the years by his habit of jumping from side to side to side,” an underworld source said.

Abdulrahim had arranged to meet two associates in the car park of an Officeworks store in Campbellfield. One of them was Kadir “KD” Ors, the best friend and member of a rising crew run by Kazem Hamad.

Abdulrahim, Ors and another associate were sitting at a nearby bus stop when a car suddenly pulled up and rival drug trafficker George Marrogi leapt out and opened fire. Ors was fatally shot.

Marrogi left a trail of evidence that led to his arrest and murder charge the next day. He would eventually be sentenced to 32 years in jail.

In court, evidence emerged that Abdulrahim had allegedly played a key role in luring Ors to the scene.

It’s an allegation Abdulrahim has strenuously denied during Marrogi’s murder trial and his own lawsuit against the state.

“I bumped into him [Ors],” he testified during his compensation hearing.

In fact, Abdulrahim did himself no favours by testifying at Marrogi’s murder trial. The other associate at the meeting that day would instead claim his memory had gone blank from too much Xanax.

Abdulrahim’s claim of innocence was frankly dismissed by Victoria’s Court of Appeal during Marrogi’s later bid to overturn his conviction.

“We consider that the evidence established that [Marrogi] was connected to Abdulrahim, and that Abdulrahim had the capacity to alert the applicant to Ors’ whereabouts on the day he was shot.”

More importantly, Hamad and Ahmed Al Hamza – close mates and cousins – believed Abdulrahim had betrayed them.

“The Punisher” proved to be his own worst enemy again when it came out that he had started a relationship with Ors’ wife.

Chickens coming home to roost

More than three years after killing Muriel Hulett with his Ferrari, Abdulrahim was sentenced to three years and three months’ jail in July 2018.

But that became the least of his problems as Hamad and Al Hamza began a campaign of retaliation for his perceived double-dealing.

Underworld sources say Abdulrahim’s panel-beating shop in Epping was targeted in a daylight drive-by orchestrated by Al Hamza, who was running the crew on the street while Hamad was on remand, awaiting trial for drug trafficking.

Things got really hairy when Abdulrahim was granted parole in March 2019.

Five days after his release, Abdulrahim’s parents’ home was sprayed with bullets. A close relative escaped a shooting two months later. Then an associate’s home was hit with more than 20 bullets in another drive-by.

No one has ever been arrested.

Little wonder that Abdulrahim’s budding post-prison relationship with reality TV star Jessika Power hit the skids and Abdulrahim was forced to move from hotel to hotel to stay safe.

Authorities had had enough. In June 2019, the Adult Parole Board revoked his parole because of safety risks.

Inside, they were waiting for him.

No sooner had Abdulrahim climbed off the bus to Loddon Prison than he was ambushed in the yard.

“I was walking [with an escort of two guards], two people came up to shake my hand. I thought it was all sweet. I pulled out my hand to shake it, and as I turned around, I got hit with a rock at the back of my head,” he testified during his lawsuit against the state government.

Abdulrahim stayed in jail until the Supreme Court ruled that his parole had been unfairly revoked and he was released.

Resurrection, interrupted

At first, 2021 was shaping up to be Abdulrahim’s year.

“The Punisher” demolished two competitors in the ring.

He had also filed a lawsuit against the state government over its decision to revoke his parole in 2019. (He lost the case, but the judge recommended in 2023 he should receive up to $180,000 in compensation. The government refused.)

Abdulrahim’s message to enemies, posted online.Credit: Instagram

Abdulrahim joined the outlaw Mongols Motorcycle Club along with mate and former Bandidos bikie Toby Mitchell.

The Mongols were rapidly expanding, pushing back on rival gangs and becoming a key target for federal and state law enforcement authorities.

Abdulrahim couldn’t resist boasting about his new fortunes on Instagram, of which he had become an avid user: “I have licked the fire and danced in the ashes of every bridge I burned. I fear no hell from you.”

The victory lap turned out to be far too premature.

Just six months later, in early 2022, Abdulrahim would be told he was out of the Mongols.

“He was using the Mongols as a defence against his enemies, and the club was sick of it,” an underworld source said.

Once out, his enemies closed in. The Age has previously reported rivals assaulted Abdulrahim three times shortly afterwards.

Abdulrahim was also drawn into – as a potential victim – one of the biggest law enforcement operations ever seen in Australia, Operation Ironside.

The Australian Federal Police and US Federal Bureau of Investigation had created a bespoke encrypted communications system known as An0m and secretly distributed it among top organised crime figures worldwide.

A police source, who cannot be identified talking about confidential operations, said Abdulrahim figured prominently in some messages – as the intended target of two different murder plots.

In May 2022, Victoria Police warned Abdulrahim that he could be killed at an upcoming boxing match.

But an actual attack, a month later, would be far more public.

On June 25, Abdulrahim had just left his cousin’s funeral with two other men, driving in a procession of cars outside the Fawkner cemetery, when a Mazda pulled into the oncoming traffic lane and surged forward alongside his Mercedes-Benz G-class 4WD.

A gunman pumped at least eight bullets into Abdulrahim, four of them across the chest.

“I thought it was one of my mates from the funeral. And when I looked, I just [sic] seen something pointing at me and I’ll go, surely, this is a joke,” Abdulrahim said on Newman’s podcast.

“‘The Punisher’ seemed to think he could just walk away from what he’d started. These guys aren’t ever gonna stop.”

Underworld source

Abdulrahim raced the Mercedes half a kilometre to safety in the car park of Fawkner Police Station.

Abdulrahim has long maintained he had no idea who had tried to kill him. The closest he ever got to publicly airing a theory was a cryptic response to a question at his trial about his mental state: “I’m worried about one person,” he testified.

Police and underworld sources say the hit was likely ordered by Ahmed Al Hamza, who had reignited the feud between the Al Hamza/Hamad crew and Abdulrahim that went back to the murder of Kadir Ors.

Police intelligence obtained by The Age shows one of the two 18-year-olds suspected of the shooting and a 19-year-old who helped organise the hit were all members of Al Hamza’s street crew.

Al Hamza himself would never be charged. He skipped out of Australia for sanctuary in the Middle East ahead of an investigation for allegedly running a massive drug-trafficking network.

The attempt on Abdulrahim’s life narrowly failed, but Al Hamza and Hamad were just warming up.

Resurrection, redux

There’s no doubt that “Suna” is a fighter.

Abdulrahim claims he died twice before reaching the hospital, spent two days in intensive care and then discharged himself after two weeks. A bullet was still lodged in his kidney, considered unsafe to remove.

Less than a year later, he knocked out his opponent in the first round to claim the WBC Asia Pacific title.

“... Over the last little while he’s had something of an epiphany,” a lawyer told a court in May 2023.

“He’s quit the Mongols; he’s had a baby. He is to be a devoted family man, and he uses these life experiences in a positive way, so he said that, ‘I use it to show kids you can go down a different path’.”

The rosy outlook failed to account for the storm of ill will that wasn’t going to disappear.

That championship bout at Thomastown’s QRoom in May 2023 – which had to be patrolled by heavily armed police – would effectively be the last time “The Punisher” would be able to competitively box in this country.

From left: Waleed Haddara, Fadi Haddara, Sam Abdulrahim and his trainer Pierre Karam.Credit: Instagram

An old, intractable enemy – Hamad – was on the verge of being released from prison after serving an eight-year sentence for drug trafficking. Hamad would be immediately deported to his native Iraq, but that couldn’t stop what was coming.

Inside, Hamad had plotted a rapid rise to the top of Melbourne’s underworld on a wave of violence funded by a takeover of the illicit tobacco market, which also included plans to exact revenge on personal enemies – and Abdulrahim was foremost among his targets.

A Moonee Ponds tobacco shop linked to Abdulrahim was firebombed three times in May and June 2023 within days of opening.

In October, the Brunswick East gym where Abdulrahim trained and once ran his business Punisher Promotions was burnt down.

Hamad also allegedly put a $1 million bounty on Abdulrahim.

Police had visited Abdulrahim to warn him there was a new murder contract on his life and to keep a low profile.

Undaunted, Abdulrahim was all over social media spruiking an upcoming fight in February 2024 at Thornbury’s Furlan Club.

In an interview posted to Instagram, he was asked what fight fans could expect: “Fireworks.”

They came in the form of petrol bombs lobbed into the venue two days before the main event, followed by an arson attack on a nearby nightclub due to host the after-party.

The next month, a tobacco shop in Sunshine West linked to Abdulrahim was burnt to the ground.

Abdulrahim’s boxing career had to go international as a result, but not the way he had hoped. His next fight would be held in Bangkok, with the location of the venue announced only hours before the start. He took the WBC Australasia cruiser title for the second time.

“There’s fighting in a ring and then there’s fighting in the streets,” an underworld source said.

“‘The Punisher’ seemed to think he could just walk away from what he’d started. These guys aren’t ever gonna stop.”

(New) Brothers 4 Life

Outmanned and outgunned, Abdulrahim apparently decided the best defence was to associate with an old-school Sydney crime gang, the Brothers 4 Life.

The notorious El Nasher family were mostly locked up.

The Haddara family had lost control of the illicit cigarette market after Hamad launched a wave of attacks on their criminal interests and legitimate businesses in the so-called tobacco war.

Mate Toby Mitchell had also been ejected from the Mongols at the same time as Abdulrahim.

Instead, Abdulrahim looked farther afield for support.

In April 2024, Sam appeared in an Instagram post arm-in-arm with Mohammed “Little Crazy” Hamzy, one of the founding members of the once powerful and notoriously violent Middle Eastern organised crime family.

Brothers 4 Life, founded in Sydney in 2007, had never made inroads into Victoria, and was reeling from the assassination and jailing of many of its members.

But the message was clear – Abdulrahim had the backing of a new crew.

Mohammed “Little Crazy” Hamzy is a member of Brothers 4 Life.

And no sooner was there a flare-up in arson attacks linked to Melbourne’s underworld.

The response was almost immediate.

Early on May 24, two cars belonging to Abdulrahim’s parents were set on fire outside their home in the northern suburbs.

But this was not the main game, by any means.

A few suburbs away in Thomastown, two masked men with handguns crouched below the wall running alongside Abdulrahim’s gated home, waiting for him to dash to his parents’ side.

As the electronic driveway gate began opening, the assailants walked up to the car and opened fire. Slamming the vehicle in reverse, Abdulrahim swung through the gate as the gunshots continued to rain down.

All told, 17 bullets were fired at Abdulrahim, but not one hit him.

A second hit team lying in wait was also frustrated when Abdulrahim didn’t show up to seek sanctuary at a nearby relative’s house.

They missed, but the pressure didn’t stop.

Two weeks later, Abdulrahim’s now-empty house was peppered with bullets in a drive-by shooting.

His enemies’ attention then turned to those connected to him.

Abdulrahim’s nephew, who boxes under the name Punisher Jr, had one of his fights called off after the QRoom was firebombed in July.

Days later, a business linked to Abdulrahim’s close mate was burnt down.

Then last month, on the same night, a Port Melbourne beauty parlour linked to one of Sam’s relatives and his abandoned Thomastown home were both torched.

Detective Inspector Graham Banks, who has been leading the Lunar taskforce formed to investigate the “tobacco war”, said arson had become an easy weapon for crime groups to annoy their enemies and send a public message.

Abdulrahim has had to take his boxing career overseas due to frequent attacks.Credit: Instagram

“For people who are into drugs or illicit tobacco, they’re making millions of dollars, so to fork out at the highest $20,000 to do an arson, it’s chump change to them,” he said, but declined to discuss any specific incidents.

“They’ll target multiple premises that are simply associated with that person. It’s a demonstration.”

Where Abdulrahim is now is anybody’s guess. Rumours are rife in the underworld, and the boxer is dropping vague hints through Instagram posts.

He’s still in Melbourne; he’s training in Thailand; no, he’s holidaying anywhere from Morocco to Indonesia.

“[Am I] walking around worried? Nah, not really. You know, when my time’s up, my time’s up, I guess,” he said on the 2022 podcast.

But that was two years and a score of attacks ago.

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.