Western Sydney gang war explodes with brutal slaying

The younger brother of notorious Brothers for Life founder Bassam Hamzy was shot dead in broad daylight as he got into his car on a street in western Sydney.

The scene of the daylight assassination in western Sydney. Picture: Christian Gilles

Just six months ago, crime boss Ghassan Amoun was granted a temporary release from jail so he could attend the funeral of his slain cousin Bilal Hamze, despite warnings that he was the next target in the vicious war that has engulfed Sydney’s underworld.

On Thursday afternoon, just three days after he finally walked free from prison, Amoun’s enemies made good their threat.

The 35-year-old gangster, younger brother of notorious Brothers for Life founder Bassam Hamzy, was shot dead in broad daylight as he got into his car on a street in western Sydney.

Amoun had just left a laser hair removal clinic in South Wentworthville and walked to his car in Rawson Road at the intersection of the Great Western Highway when the killers struck. A balaclava-clad gunman leapt from a stolen Mini Cooper and fired multiple shots, hitting Amoun at least twice in the head, before being driven away by an accomplice.

The Hamzy family boss was still alive when paramedics reached the scene just after the shooting at 12.45pm but died before he could be taken to hospital.

The getaway car was found alight on a nearby street, torched by the gunmen who are believed to have fled in another vehicle.

NSW Police Acting Superintendent Glen Fitzgerald described the shooting as a “brutal” incident and one that was “obviously a targeted attack linked to criminal networks”.

Amoun had been subject to court orders restricting his movements and communications in a bid to quell the violent feud between the Hamzy and Alameddine families, a strategy that appears to have had no success.

Amoun had been jailed last year for breaching the Serious Crime Prevention Order after he was found with three undeclared mobile phones and a laptop inside an Audi A4 with fresh Queensland number plates. He was released earlier this week.

The Hamzes have fared badly in the most recent round of bloodletting, with Amoun’s brother Mejid Hamzy killed in October 2020 and cousin Bilal Hamze gunned down in June last year in Sydney’s CBD after dining on $200 worth of Wagyu beef, kingfish and sashimi in the upmarket restaurant Kid Kyoto.

In October, another drive-by shooting left distant relatives Salim Hamze and his father Toufik dead from gunshot wounds in suburban Guildford.

Amoun had been warned by police that he was next on the list, with a large contract on his life.

Police are now warning of an escalation in the bloody feud.

Last month, more than 100 police officers raided 13 properties in southwest Sydney linked to the rival Alameddines, seizing more than $500,000 in cash, firearms, stolen vehicles and illicit drugs.

Police were searching for two “lieutenants”, one of them Ali Younes, a cousin of clan leader Rafat Alameddine.

Younes, who later turned himself in to police, is a rapper with 44,000 followers on Instagram, and was featured in Rolling Stone Australia in August. His cousin Talal Alameddine pleaded guilty in 2020 to supplying the gun that was used to murder NSW police accountant Curtis Cheng.

Police sources say they believe Younes’ rap videos directly referenced some of the crimes he is accused of committing.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith alleged the pair “procured” members from smaller western Sydney gangs to work for the Alameddine family.

“What we’ve seen is a change in the way outlaw motorcycle gangs operate. What we’re seeing now is youth being procured or groomed through rapper music – youth ­participating in violent crime through the network of these rapper videos,” he said.

“They’re basically groomed by the syndicate to carry out public place shootings, violent crime, murder.”

Police investigating the gang war believe more than seven ­murders have been linked to the activities of the group.