Slain drug lord Alen Moradian’s estranged wife has been comforted by loved ones at an intimate family gathering in western Sydney – just hours after the cocaine kingpin was gunned down in his car on her 51st birthday.
Moradian, 49, was shot dead while sitting in the front seat of his luxury car in an underground carpark in Bondi Junction just before 8.30am on Tuesday.
The convicted drug boss, 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.
Police said Moradian had a ‘big target on his back’ and was ambushed by up to two hitmen, one of whom managed to set a getaway car on fire.
But detectives discovered a gun in the second vehicle after it was seemingly abandoned following a botched attempt to set it ablaze.
Moradian spent the past the past year living in fear after being warned by NSW police in August that there was a bounty on his head.
He regularly changed his routine, address and vehicles hoping nobody would find him.
But he was shot dead leaving his secret hideout in Sydney’s east on the way to the gym.
Cocaine kingpin Alen Mordian’s devastated wife Natasha is pictured hours after her husband’s was gunned down
Grieving loved ones appeared tearful as they gathered to mourn the shocking development at the family home in Sydney’s west
Several family members including Natasha (second from right) gathered in front of the home on Tuesday afternoon as others occasionally came in and out of the house
Forensic investigators were seen attending the crime scene on Spring Street Bondi Junction
Natasha, who took a day off from her Richmond café, Kiana Organic, should have been spending the evening celebrating her birthday.
Instead, Daily Mail Australia exclusively captured the moment she and other relatives congregated at a home near Fairfield to mourn the convicted drug dealer’s sudden death.
Several family members dressed in black tracksuits sat on outdoor dining chairs in front yard on Tuesday afternoon as others occasionally came in and out of the house.
In sombre scenes, one woman crouched on the cement path clutching a tissue in her hand as the forlorn group stood in a circle chatting and staring at the ground.
Her face red-raw with emotion, Natasha appeared downcast as she emerged from the house carrying a water bottle as friends comforted her on what was meant to be a celebratory day.
She spoke to a few female relatives briefly to say her goodbyes before they got into the cars and drove away.
One guest donned what looked to be a designer Louis Vuitton handbag – perhaps a nod to slain boss known for his love of gaudy Euro luxury.
Moradian had decked out his Pennant Hills home in Versace furniture and homewares.
Alen Moradian was gunned down in Sydney’s Bondi Junction
Natasha received the shattering news of her estranged husband’s death on Tuesday morning
It was Natasha’s 51st birthday on the day her husband was brazenly shot dead
A burnt-out Holden was found shortly after the shooting on Cook Lane in Zetland
Moradian had stong links to the Comanchero bikie gang and is believed to have had a key role in the city’s cocaine network.
It’s understood he helped set up ‘The Commission’ in early 2021. The underworld network linked to the Comanchero controls much of the city’s drug trade by taxing other gangs who import and sell narcotics.
One underworld source told The Daily Telegraph that Moradian’s shooting death ‘could be someone sending a very strong message to The Commission.’
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 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 400kgs 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 one 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.
Moradian had links to at least four gangland murders, which include Mejid Hamzy, Lametta Fadlallah, Mahmoud ‘Brownie’ Ahmad and Marvin Oraiha
Natasha Moradian (left) – the estranged wife of the late Alen Moradian – is pictured with slain ‘gangster mum’ Lametta Fadlallah (right)
Moradian, who was also dubbed ‘fathead’, was arrested in 2007 along with his wife after investigations into what NSW Police called at the time one of the largest ever cocaine and money laundering syndicates they’d seen in the state.
After months of surveillance, police discovered more than $19million in cash and expensive assets they alleged were from selling at least 100kg of high-quality cocaine.
Among the assets seized were luxury cars, boats, jet skis, motorbikes and 17 guns, including a gold-plated Magnum .357 pistol.
In an email tendered to the court, Natasha who hails from Kuwait, warned her husband to be careful.
‘Why do you just sit there and show off – ‘I am the man, I am the man’?’ the email read.
‘Do you see Tony Soprano doing that?
‘He doesn’t care who people think is the boss, [money] is his number one priority. You, on the other hand, want the attention, you get a big head, you love it.
‘People like that won’t survive.’
Forensic investigators and undertakers were seen at the scene of Moradian’s shooting late on Tuesday evening on Spring Street as the slain drug lord’s body was removed.
Security Natasha’s bush property was beefed before Alen Moradian’s shooting death
The drug kingpin was killed just days after launching a gemstone business and despite security being beefed up at his wife’s bush property just last week.
Documents obtained by Daily Mail Australia revealed Moradian last Friday set up a new company, Brilliant Gems Australia Pty Ltd, with the convicted drug dealer listing himself as the director, secretary and sole shareholder of the business.
The principal place of residence was listed as his wife’s $2.35million property in Kurrajong, at the base of the NSW Blue Mountains.
Neighbours reported seeing Natasha leaving her home in a black sedan about 90 minutes after her husband was gunned down.
Meanwhile, neighbours revealed a large black fence was erected around the Kurrajong 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.
‘We always see white vans going to and from the property, but we’ve never seen who lives there.’
A burnt-out car was found shortly after the shooting on Cook Lane in Zetland
Staff at Natasha’s organic store at Richmond confirmed she had a rostered day off.
A police source at the scene confirmed the man had died. A burnt-out Holden Commodore was found shortly after the shooting on Cook Lane in Zetland.
A damaged Porsche Macan was also located on James Street, Bondi Junction, which the shooters tried to set ablaze as they fled the scene.
The interior of the Porsche was melted slightly and the vehicles windows were blackened in their efforts to burn it.
Forensic teams uncovered a gun inside the vehicle with investigators saying it provides a major clue that could help lead officers to Moradian’s killers.
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
A court later heard Moradian dropped $1million in cash on Versace furniture and homewares.
He and his wife had been turning their West Pennant Hills McMansion into an Italian-style palazzo, complete with Renaissance-inspired garden statues and a Sistine Chapel-style mural on the ceiling of their lounge room.
Moradian was sentenced to 16 years jail for his role in the syndicate, which would import one-kilogram bricks of cocaine for $30,000 from Chicago and then sell them in Sydney for $190,000.
Three crime scenes have been established following his death. Each one will be forensically examined by specialist police.
Officers from Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command and detectives from the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad have commenced an investigation.
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, whop 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.
It contained with a Sistine Chapel-esque ceiling, with police dubbing it the ‘Versace palace’.
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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