Murder victim Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad ‘on move every 15 minutes’

Murdered gangster Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad sought to protect himself by moving locations every 15 minutes and attempting to buy an armoured vehicle, police have revealed.

NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole and Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Murdered gangster Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad sought to protect himself by moving locations every 15 minutes and attempting to buy an armoured vehicle before he was gunned down in a gangland assassination in Sydney’s west, police have revealed.

Ahmad, 39, had been warned by detectives that he had a $1m bounty on his head and that his life was in danger shortly before he was killed outside the house of associate Ahmed Banat in Greenacre on the night of April 17.

He told officers that he’d only recently returned to Sydney to collect debts owed to him and was planning to return to Lebanon after Ramadan, a NSW budget estimates hearing heard on ­Wednesday.

Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson defended NSW Police against criticism they’d failed to stop the gangland feud in Sydney’s west that is now linked to 11 murders.

Mr Hudson said the Criminal Groups Squad told Ahmad he was in danger in Australia but the gangster endangered himself by seeking to collect on debts.

“So the very nature of the activity makes him a target, we can’t help that. Being aware of the conflict out there we had proactive patrols,” he said. “Raptor (squad) were the first on the scene last week and administered CPR before the ambulance arrived.”

Mr Hudson said the families at the centre of the gangland rift were still at large because they often “outsourced” violent crimes to a network of 300 individuals.

“We try and take out individuals and if we can’t take them out on a substantive crime we try and arrest them for something else,” he said.

NSW Labor police spokesman Walt Secord criticised NSW Police for its track record in suppressing the gang activity and allowing “gangs to police themselves”.

“They [western Sydney] have the lowest response times in NSW, they have drive-by shootings, they have criminals shooting each other on our streets and it’s a matter of time before an innocent bystander gets caught in the crossfire.”

NSW Police Minister Paul Toole said Operation Hawk had succeeded in seizing $2.3m in cash, $2m worth of drugs and more than 70 firearms in a crackdown on gangland activity this year. In addition 250 people have been arrested and 800 charges laid.

“They’re going to find themselves wearing greens in prison and using plastic cutlery,” he said.

Also at the budget estimates hearing on Wednesday the NSW government ruled out two new coal mining projects, citing uncertain economic returns and the fossil fuel’s “finite life span as an energy source”.

Mr Toole confirmed coal exploration licences would not be granted in the Ganguddy-Kelgoola region, in the NSW central tablelands, and Wollombi in the Hunter Valley.

He also ruled out future exploration at Wollar near Mudgee, which had also been identified in the government’s Strategic Statement on Coal Exploration and Mining as greenfield sites that could be suitable for mining.