Mejid Hamzy murder shows encrypted phones linking Sydney gangs with overseas Mr Bigs

The Mejid Hamzy murder investigation has revealed the incredible way Sydney underworld gangs communicate with major international crime figures.

The incredible way Sydney underworld gangs communicate with major international crime figures through dark web-style phones can be revealed in the wake of significant arrests last week over the murder of Mejid Hamzy.

Chris O’Brien, 30, and Bryce Williams, 34, were arrested in dawn raids on Thursday and both charged with murdering Hamzy in October 2020 – a shooting that sparked a bloody war between the Alameddine and Hamzy/Hamze clans.

Senior police have now detailed the lengths detectives went to over the past 18 months to gather evidence against the two men they allege gunned Hamzy down outside his Condell Park home.

Christopher O'Brien was last week charged with murdering Mejid Hamzy in October 2020. Picture: John Grainger

Police also charged Bryce Mark Williams, with one of the key allegations that the pair used encrypted devices to accept the contract killing.

Police swooped on the pair during dawn raids last Thursday. Picture: NSW Police

One of the key allegations against O’Brien and Williams will be that they accepted the job to kill Hamzy on a dedicated encrypted device (DECD) – a secure phone used to communicate and plan activities outside the gazes of police.

According to police sources, these devices allow criminals to put jobs – such as murders and kidnappings – up on offer to anyone willing to do them, much in the way the public does with general tasks on sites like Airtasker.

Police do not allege O’Brien or Williams have committed any other crimes.

“Everyone is quite linked in with each other through those dedicated encrypted networks from overseas,” Detective Superintendent Grant Taylor, whose Criminal Groups Squad officers have led the investigation, told The Daily Telegraph.

“These individuals know each other and they associate and assimilate and they build up a network.

“We allege they use this technology to arrange the murders of their rivals and other serious illicit activities because they know that they are currently out of the reach of authorities.

“Those offshore networks display a significant danger to the law enforcement of the country.”

Mejid Hamzy was allegedly murdered in Condell Park in October 2020, with his death sparking a gang war between the Hamzy and Alameddine clans

His murder came eight months before the slaying of his high-profile cousin Bilal Hamze.

Mejid Hamzy’s brother Ghassan Amoun (left, pictured with Ibrahem Hamze) was gunned down in January.

The man allegedly offering a contract on Hamzy, or at least behind the hit, was Sydney-born international drug kingpin and ex-Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle, who wanted revenge after 400 kgs of cocaine belonging to him was stolen – with Mejid Hamzy rumoured to have been involved.

Buddle, who has been in exile since leaving Australia in 2016, is currently believed to be living in Cyprus.

Hamzy’s death was the first of seven fatalities in what police allege has been a bloody war between a crime group carrying his surname, and the rival Alameddine clan.

The deaths of Hamzy, his brother Ghassan Amoun in January, and his cousin Bilal Hamze in the CBD last June, have been the highest profile of the executions.

Former Comanchero bikie boss Mark Buddle is reportedly living in Cyprus.

However it was the slaying of a teenage gangster Salim Hamze and his innocent father Toufic Hamze in the frontyard of their suburban Guildford street last August that led police to further intensify their efforts.

“That was a particularly egregious murder and it certainly involved someone who was not directly involved in organised crime,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Darren Bennett said.

“It was a line in the sand for the then-Commissioner … that we need(ed) to put something meaningful and long term in place.”

What followed was the creation of Strike Force Hawk and the identification of 300 associates of the Hamzy and Alameddine clans.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Darren Bennett said the murders of a father and son in Guildford last year led police to “draw a line in the sand”. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Specially made phones by brands such as Cipher are widely used by criminals to communicate outside the reaches of authorities. Picture: Cipher

As the Criminal Groups Squad investigated the murders, the Raptor Squad cracked down on those linked to the two warring sides.

“There’s two sides to it. You’ve got public place shootings in the street with people who have covered their faces and have a degree of tradecraft that makes it difficult to solve,” Act Asst Comm Bennett said.

“So that means that when we do investigate, it takes as long as it takes.

“And while they’re at large they’re a risk to the community, we understand that, so the mitigation around what we do with them day in day out is also part of our strategy.

“So on the back of that we do a lot of other things around suppression and getting in their faces and making sure to minimise the chances of them impacting on the community day-to-day.”

In addition to solving murders and suppressing crime, police sources said a key focus continues to be cracking down on their unexplained wealth – much of which they allege comes from proceeds of crime.

Originally published as Mejid Hamzy murder shows encrypted phones linking Sydney gangs with overseas Mr Bigs