Slain crime boss Alen Moradian feared for his life and wanted to flee the country in the months before his execution – but was denied permission by authorities, Daily Mail Australia can reveal.
The drug kingpin, 48, was still on parole over a 40kg cocaine importation when he approached authorities last August, claiming that a price had been placed on his head.
Moradian unsuccessfully sought to have his reporting conditions altered so he could seek sanctuary overseas. NSW Police refused to confirm to Community Corrections – which supervises parolees – or Moradian’s lawyers whether they believed his fears were genuine.
Moradian died in a hail of bullets as he sat in his vehicle in an underground car park at Bondi Junction in Sydney’s east about 8.15am on Tuesday.
Two gunmen fled the scene after the gangland hit but the escape plan appears to have been botched when their bid to torch their getaway car failed.
A single piece of police tape strapped to a fire hydrant dangled near a boomgate leading to the lower floors of the car park on Wednesday.
Slain crime boss Alen Moradian feared for his life and wanted to flee the country in the months before his execution but was denied permission by authorities. Moradian is pictured
Moradian died in a hail of bullets as he sat in his vehicle in an underground car park at Bondi Junction in Sydney ‘s east about 8.15am on Tuesday. A piece of police tape strapped to a fire hydrant dangled near a boomgate leading to the lower floors of the car park on Wednesday
The ribbon was the only sign a cold-blooded assassination had taken place there a day earlier, as well as two subtly cleaner adjacent car spots which appeared to be washed down.
Spooked residents told Daily Mail Australia police ordered them to stay inside and not go into the car park on Tuesday as they set up a crime scene on the first floor of the car park.
A man who wished to remain anonymous said two vehicles – both black SUVs – were towed out by police about 9pm on Tuesday as forensic cleaners arrived at the scene.
He said one appeared to be the car Moradian was killed in, while the other was undamaged.
Moradian was convicted in July 2011 of importing a large commercial quantity of cocaine and sentenced to a minimum ten years and five months in prison.
His maximum term was 16 years and nine months and he was under Community Corrections supervision until that expired on April 24 next year.
A source told Daily Mail Australia the underworld figure had instructed lawyers to approach the Community Corrections office at Windsor, north-west of Sydney, about varying his parole conditions.
‘They contacted Community Corrections to get him relieved of his reporting conditions so he could leave the country because he was concerned about there being a target on his back,’ the source said.
‘Community Corrections sought information from the police and they were unwilling to confirm the fact he was genuinely at risk.
Moradian had spent the past the past year living in fear and regularly changed his routine, address and vehicles hoping his enemies would not find him. His wife Natasha is pictured
‘On that basis Community Corrections couldn’t relieve him of his reporting obligations, so he could not seek refuge overseas.’
Moradian’s lawyers also made contact with the State Crime Command to seek clarification of whether or not they considered his life to be at risk.
‘They wouldn’t confirm or deny that he was at risk of being assassinated,’ the source said.
Discussions took place with Community Corrections about Moradian moving to Melbourne but that would have required Victorian authorities to accept responsibility for his parole.
Another suggestion was made that Moradian could move somewhere else in NSW and report to a different Community Corrections office but that did not proceed.
Daily Mail Australia understands any decision to vary Moradian’s parole would ultimately have to have be made by the Commonwealth Parole Office as he had committed federal offences.
A man who wished to remain anonymous said two vehicles – both black SUVs – were towed out the car park where Moradian was killed as forensic cleaners arrived at the scene
When asked about any role NSW Police had in preventing Moradian from leaving the country a spokeswoman said: ‘We won’t be providing any extra comment as the investigation is ongoing.’
Homicide squad commander Danny Doherty has said the dead gangster was a ‘high-level major player’ who was well-known to police.
‘Because he’s a major player in the organised crime network and also has links to the Comancheros, high level, he had a big target on his back,’ Detective Superintendent Doherty said.
‘The shooting bears the hallmarks of an organised crime murder. We’re knocking on doors and interviewing people as we speak.’
Moradian had spent the past the past year living in fear and regularly changed his routine, address and vehicles hoping his enemies would not find him.
It was an ill-fated decision to get in his car and head to the gym from his secret hideout that led to his death.
Forensic teams uncovered a gun inside the Porsche Macan with investigators saying it provides a major clue that could help lead officers to Moradian’s killers
Last Friday, he set up a new company called Brilliant Gems Australia Pty Ltd for which his principal place of residence was listed as his wife’ Natasha’s home near the Blue Mountains.
Neighbours have told Daily Mail Australia a large black fence was erected around that property in the past few days.
‘The black fence only went up a week or so ago,’ said a neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous.
‘The construction was taking place for three weeks. Lots of people were there digging.
‘The silver [electric] fence was finished just before that – about a month ago. Before, it was only a small old wooden fence that you could step over.’
Detectives have located one of the guns and a phone used in Moradian’s execution after the killers bungled their getaway plans.
Police found a grey 2017 Porsche Macan in James St near the shooting almost undamaged after the killers rushed off and abandoned it without destroying the vehicle.
Footage from the scene reveals crucial clues left behind, including a pistol lying on the ground nearby alongside a mobile phone which may contain vital evidence.
A Holden Commodore, believed to be a second getaway vehicle, was later found burnt out a few kilometres away in Zetland, but the Porsche barely had a scratch.
Footage from the scene reveals crucial clues left behind, including a pistol lying on the ground nearby alongside a mobile phone which may contain vital evidence
The killers’ attempt to set it ablaze appears to have been scrapped, with a jerry can of fuel apparently left on the drivers seat, and only minor fire damage inside.
The airbag appears to have been set off in the $138,000 luxury SUV, and part of the car’s cabin headliner appears fire-damaged, with melted remains hanging from the roof.
But the pistol and the phone found inside will be key evidence for police in the hunt for the ruthless killers.
The mobile could be a goldmine of intelligence for detectives with the prospect of a cache of messages between the killers and their paymasters and contact numbers.
It may also offer tracking details of the killers in the lead up to the underworld execution, potentially even leading detectives to the door of their killers and whoever contracted them.
Police have now sent the pistol off for forensic testing in the hope it may recover fingerprints or DNA evidence which could identify the gunmen.
Natasha Moradian (left) received the shattering news of her estranged husband’s death on Tuesday morning
Moradian had strong links to the Comanchero bikie gang and is believed to have had a key role in the city’s cocaine network and helped set up ‘The Commission’ in 2021.
The man once dubbed the ‘Tony Soprano’ of Australia’s cocaine trade, has links to four recent gangland murders and was eerily warned years earlier by wife Natasha Youkhana that he needed to lay low.
But he was shot dead leaving his secret hideout in Sydney’s east on the way to the gym.
The underworld network linked to the Comanchero controls much of the city’s drug trade by taxing other gangs who import and sell narcotics.
The drug boss, who was born in Iraq, also had had links to at least four gangland murders on Sydney’s street since mid-2020.
These included Mejid Hamzy, Lametta Fadlallah, Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad and Marvin Oraiha.
Moradian had links to at least four gangland murders, which include Mejid Hamzy, Lametta Fadlallah, Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad and Marvin Oraiha
Hamzy was shot dead outside his Condell Park home on October 19, 2020, over the alleged theft of 400kg of cocaine from The Commission.
Ahmad was shot dead in Greenacre on April 27, 2022. It’s understood he bashed and extorted $500,000 out of Moradian while the pair were in jail.
Fadlallah was in business with Moradian’s wife for years before she was shot dead in her car alongside her hairdresser Amy Hazouri in August 2022.
Just a month ago, Oraiha and Moradian partied together in a Sydney CBD hotel room before the young man was killed in his car outside his Elizabeth Hills home on May 22.
How slain cocaine kingpin dubbed ‘Australia’s Tony Soprano’ turned his suburban McMansion into a ‘Versace palace’
The cocaine cartel boss executed in a gangland hit in Bondi Junction in Sydney’s eastern suburbs was called Sydney’s ‘Tony Soprano’ by his own wife who warned him he would not ‘survive’ if he kept showing off.
Alen Moradian, 49, was shot in the underground carpark of an apartment building next door to Bondi Junction’s Holiday Inn hotel on Spring Street before 8.30am on Tuesday.
He was handed a 16-year jail sentence in 2011 for his role as boss of the ‘Golden Gun’ drug syndicate which imported and sole more than 300kg of cocaine into Australia 2005 and 2006.
Alen Moradian had used the proceeds of the Golden Gun drug-smuggling operation to deck out his West Pennant Hills mansion in designer decor, complete with a Sistine Chapel-esque ceiling (pictured)
Moradian, who had links to the Comanchero bikie gang, had used the proceeds of the drug-smuggling operation to deck out his West Pennant Hills mansion in designer decor.
At his trial a Versace salesman told the court Moradian ‘loved the Versace furniture and the excess’, with police later dubbing his home a ‘Versace palace’.
At one point, the salesman told the cocaine kingpin he should have lived in 16th-century Italy due to his opulent tastes.
Moradian’s also mansion contained a $440,000 Sistine Chapel-esque ceiling showing sky and angels.
He was said to be mulling over an $850,000 Versace-decorated Lamborghini before police arrested him, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report from the time.
But during his trial it emerged his wife, Natasha Moradian, had warned her husband against showing off.
‘Why do you just sit there and show off… do you see Tony Soprano doing that? He points it all off on a junior for a reason – to take the heat away from him,’ an email Ms Moradian wrote to her husband read.
‘You, on the other hand, want the attention, you get a big head, you love it. People like that won’t survive,’ the email read.
Moradian had allegedly spent $1 million in cash in Versace to kit out his ‘palace’
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