Murder Inc: Underworld warfare on our streets

Eight people have been killed in the past 18 months in Sydney's gangland violence.

Eight people have been killed in the past 18 months in Sydney's gangland violence.

A man has been buried as his high-ranking bikie brother fights for his life in hospital, and at least two gunmen remain at large in Sydney.

The shooting of brothers Omar and Tarek Zahed at the BodyFit Auburn gym on Tuesday night is another tally in the authorities' losing battle against rife organised crime networks across Australia. 

Brothers Tarek Zahed (right) and Omar Zahed (left) who were hot at a gym in Auburn.

In Sydney's south-west alone, eight people have been killed in the past 18 months as a result of gangland violence. Just over two weeks ago, underworld figure Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad was murdered in a Greenacre street in "a hail of bullets".

The target of the very public Tuesday night shooting was believed to be "Balenciaga bikie" Tarek, 42, a Sergeant-at-Arms in the Comancheros. He was shot ten times, including in the head, and remains in a stable condition in hospital. But his brother Omar, 39, went into cardiac arrest and died. 

Tarek Zahed outside court early past year. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Christian Gilles

A small gathering of mourners laid Omar to rest at Rookwood cemetery on Friday morning as Strike Force police patrolled nearby streets and a PolAir helicopter circled above. The funeral was attended by their elderly mother and Underworld figure Ahmed Elomar.

Mourners carry Omar Zahed’s body into Rookwood Cemetery. He was shot dead by unknown men as he left BodyFit Auburn gym on Tuesday night with his brother and Comanchero enforcer Tarek Zahed. Picture: Daily Telegraph

Mourners pay their respects. His brother Tarek is still in hospital. Picture: Daily Telegraph

A secret briefing given to politicians by top police reportedly suggests agencies are struggling to fight organised crime networks across Australia.

The head honchos of the most powerful bikies in Australia

On April 28 this year, Mick Murray, the National boss of Comancheros was charged with the 2019 murder of gangland figure Mitat Rasimi in Dandenong, Melbourne, and taken into custody.

Murray, 44, has been the national boss of the Comancheros since 2016. Before that, he was the Victorian president for three years.

Comanchero boss Mick Murray. Picture: Ian Currie

His imprisonment left a vacuum at the top of the Comanchero pyramid, which Zahed was rumoured to possibly take up. 

Before there was Mick, there was Mark Buddle, who now considers himself the "commander" of the Comancheros globally. He fled to Dubai with his partner and daughter in 2016 after cops tried to question him in relation to a fatal shooting in 2010.

Buddle has embarked on what looks like an all-stops 'avoid the cops' tour, travelling through Lebanon, Iraq and settling in Cyprus.

A kid from Sydney housing commission, he lived in luxury in Dubai and is estimated to be sitting on a drug-trafficking fortune of about $100 million. 

Former Comanchero Bikie boss Mark Buddle with partner Mel Terwisscha.

Tarek quietly climbed the ranks of the Comancheros over the past decade to become part of Buddle's inner circle, even attending his mother's funeral in 2018.

But his profile started to grow when he rocked up to court in a colourful Versace shirt, birthing numerous pen names including "the Gucci gangster". He also recently featured in associates' TikTok videos and was captured on screen interrupting play at the Australian Open.

Tarek supposedly heard about the $1 million bounty on his head from the pages of The Daily Telegraph last week, before police knocked on his door. Yet he and his brother continued to attend the gym at the same time each night. 

It's unclear whether the shooting was the result of internal riffs in the Comancheros or Sydney's gangland feuds.

Tarek Zahed outside the courthouse. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

No one has been arrested over the shooting, although two torched out cars, one with a burnt gun inside, were found in nearby suburbs.

Buddle was the successor of Mick Hawi.

He took over the Comanchero presidency from its founder Jock Ross at the ripe age of 22. He headed the gang during the infamous 2009 Sydney airport brawl where Hells Angels associate Tony Zervas was clubbed to death with a bollard and stabbed with scissors at the domestic terminal.

Following the incident, Hawi was arrested and Buddle appointed himself President. 

In 2011, Hawi was sentenced to maximum 28 years for murdering Zervas, but that decision was overturned, and in 2015 he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for manslaughter over the same incident.

But despite getting his freedom in late 2015, Hawi, then 37, was shot dead in early 2018. He was murdered as he sat in his car outside the Fitness First at Rockdale. That gym was no stranger to gang-related violence.

The Comancheros

The Comancheros was founded in 1968 by Scottish immigrant William George "Jock" Ross. He supposedly named the club after watching the John Wayne film The Comancheros.

Back then, bikies were a bunch of social misfits who banded together and rode around on motorcycles. In a 2014 60 Minutes interview, Ross described the early Comancheros as about mateship and said "you didn't need anyone outside (the group)". But that quickly changed and the clan turned criminal.

"There was an element of the club, it started becoming a club in itself, and it started breeding a bit of dissension, bitching about things that were happening, wanted things changed. That was the beginning of things going wrong," Ross said.

In 1982, the club was split into two chapters, giving rise to the first Bandidos motorcycle club in Australia. The groups became rivals, leading to the 1984 Father's Day Milperra Massacre. Twenty-six people were injured, and seven killed. All casualties were Bandidos and Comancheros, except one. She was a 14-year-old girl selling raffle tickets at a nearby barbecue.

So began their bloody legacy defined by public displays of violence. When the Comancheros clashed with rival gang the Hells Angels at Sydney Airport in 2009, a man died in front of 50 unsuspecting witnesses.

Today, the Comancheros reportedly bring in billions of dollars through the illicit drug trade.

Its members currently take up an entire wing at Port Phillip Prison in Melbourne's West, many charged in the recent AN0M (an encrypted phone app secretly taken over by the FBI and marketed at criminals) sting.

Western Australia bikie crackdown

Laws came into effect in WA in December which punished bikie members for displaying the insignia of identified criminal organisations.

The aim was to stop members of these gangs gathering in public places and wearing their patches or colours. 

It was ignited by the very public, sniper-style murder of former Rebels boss Nick Martin in December at a motorsport venue in December 2020.

These are the toughest bikie laws to date in Australia.

In January, police charged five outlaw gang members for displaying prohibited insignia after they attended a pool party in Scarborough. The person who called the policy on them said they had visible tattoos of the Rebels and Hells Angels. 

The Comancheros also have a chapter in WA.