Cousin of slain Hamze underworld figures who police fear is next target faces murder, kidnap charges

The cousin of slain underworld figures who police fear is the next target in Sydney’s family blood feud has been charged along with six other men in an alleged kidnapping and stabbing in western Sydney.

Ibrahem Hamze, 27,  is also charged with shooting with intent to murder and soliciting a murder following the attack outside a Prospect gym in November 2021.

He is the cousin of jailed Brothers 4 Life gangster Bassam Hamzy and has seen at least five family members executed in what NSW Raptor Squad police believe is part of an ongoing war between the Hamze and Alameddine families.

Hamze arrived under police escort back in NSW after being extradited from the Gold Coast by detectives who have repeatedly warned him his life is in danger.

The war between the two Middle Eastern Australian families was reignited in earnest in October 2020, when Ibrahem’s cousin Mejid Hamzy was gunned at Condell Park.

Just weeks ago, Ibrahem’s cousin Ghassan Amoun was shot dead in a brazen lunchtime execution after he was ambushed on leaving the Lady Laser salon in South Wentworthville just days after being released from prison.

Ibrahem Hamze has been charged along with Haissam Hamzy, 27, and Tareek Hamzy, 24, and four others for allegedly detaining and stabbing a man in Sydney’s west last year.

Ibrahem also faces charges of large commercial drug supply, and directing the activities of a criminal group. 

Ibrahem Hamze (above) is escorted by NSW Police Raptor Squad at Bankstown Airport in Sydney after his extradition from Queensland to face charges of kinapping and soliciting murder

Hamze, 27, was arrested and charged by police who have warned him that he risks being the next target in the ongoing Sydney underworld blood feud between two families

 Haissem and Tareek, who were arrested at Condell Park after police raids, are also related to Mejid Hamzy and the other slain family members.

Bilal El-Chamy, 21, and Ahmad El-Chamy, 27 were arrested at Thirlmere in relation to the incident at Merrylands last year. 

A 24-year-old man walking in Merrylands last September was allegedly assailed by five men who forced him into a white Toyota van parked nearby.

Police say the man was driven to a vacant unit in Auburn and held captive for several hours, before he was found in Birrong with a stab wound to his shoulder and taken to Liverpool Hospital. 

Hamze has seen at least five relatives gunned down in brazen executions (above, cousin Ghassan Amoun is buried after being shot dead in January) in violent blood feud with the Alameddine family 

Ibrahem Hamze is charged over the alleged kidnapping (above) in Merrylands last September of a 24-year-old man later found with stab wounds to his shoulder

Hamze is also charged with soliciting murder in relations to the shooting at the World Gym at Prospect last November when shots were fired from a car and a man, 33, was wounded 

Two men arrested following the incident have been refused bail to appear before Fairfield Local Court on February 17.

Following further investigations, police charged Ibrahem Hamze, Haissem Hamzy, Tareek Hamzy, Bilal El-Chamy and Ahmad El-Chamy and who were all due to face  Parramatta Bail Court on Wednesday.

 Ibrahem Hamze’s other charges stem from a shooting outside the World Gym at Prospect in western Sydney on November 29 last year.

Ibrahem Hamze (above in white mask) has been warned by police he is at risk and is considered the ‘last man standing’ after the series of brazen daylight executions of his family

CCTV of the alleged kidnapping (above) and stabbing of the 24-year-old man in Merrylands was released by police who have just charged seven men including Ibrahem Hamze

Ghassan Amoun (above left, blue jacket), whose older brother is jailed Brothers 4 Life gangster Bassam Hamzy (above, right)  was ambushed and shot outside the lady Laser salon in January, four days after his release from prison

As with the alleged Merrylands kidnap, police released CCTV of the incident which shows four men walking to the gym’s entrance on Rowood Road around 11.35am when a volley of shots were fired at them.

Police escort Ibrahem Hamze to a vehicle to transport him to Parramatta court where he would face a magistrate formally charged over two incidents in Sydney last year

The bullets struck the gym’s exterior and a staircase and entered a daycare centre next door, narrowly missing the children and staff inside.

The cameras also captured speeding from the scene a dark-coloured Mazda, which was later found burnt out 5km away in Blacktown.

One 33-year-old man sustained a gunshot wound to his leg, although the other three men were uninjured. 

Bilal Hamze is laid to rest at Rookwood after he was gunned down execution style in Sydney’s CBD in June last year, just nine months after his cousin Mejid died in a similar attack

Ibrahem Hamze (pale grey hoodie) embraces a mourner at the funeral of Bilal Hamze, who was murdered execution style in Sydney’s CBD in June last year

Two men, aged 23 and 19, were arrested last December by strike force detectives and charged with offences including shoot with intent to murder.

NSW Police sought to extradite Ibrahem Hamze who was detained on the Gold Coast on Monday before a Queensland magistrate granted the request.

 Police believe Ibrahem Hamze has narrowly avoided being killed twice, the first time on January 30 last year when Mustafa Naaman was shot dead in Hurstville in a suspected mistaken identity attack.

Police believe the shooter mistook Naaman, drove a car similar to Hamze, for Ibrahem.

Police also foiled a a targeted hit on August 14 last year when two gunman clad in balaclavas drove a stolen Mercedes to a North Sydney street close to where Hamze was living in North Sydney.

A woman sits by the grave of Salim Hamze, the ‘baby faced gangster’ gunned down last October during an ongoing gangland family blood feud

Mejid Hamze, 44, (above, left) was shot dead in Condell Park in October 2020 and his cousin Salim Hamze, 18, (above right) was executed with his father as they left home last October

A burnt out car used in the shooting of Ghassan Amoun in early January was found abandoned and burnt soon after the fatal shooting (above)

In June last year, Bassam Hamzy’s cousin and underworld boss Bilal Hamze was killed in a ‘brutal, execution-style murder’ in Sydney’s CBD outside a restaurant.

In October last year, ‘baby-faced gangster’ Salim Hamze, 18, and his innocent father  Toufik Hamze were gunned down outside their home in Guildford 

Stolen cars used in the shootings and then abandoned and burnt nearby are a feature of the executions murders of Hamze family members.

Ibrahem’s cousin Mejid Hamzy who was gunned down outside his southwest Sydney home in Condell Park in October 2020.

A grey Toyota RAV4, believed to be used in Hamzy’s murder, was found burned out in a nearby street.

A burnt out car used in the shooting of Ghassan Amoun in early January was found abandoned and burnt soon after the fatal shooting.  

THE TIMELINE OF SYDNEY’S BLOODY GANGLAND WAR

MAY 2007 – Prison officers find notes in Bassam Hamzy’s Lithgow jail cell referring to the Brothers 4 Life bikie gang for the first time

OCTOBER 2012 – Tensions between the Bankstown and Blacktown chapters of B4L blow up with the shooting of Yehye Amood, 27 and Bassim Hijazi. Amhoom is killed but Hijazi survives and flees to Lebanon

MARCH 9, 2013 – Bassam Hamzy’s aunt Maha Hamze is shot eight times in the legs, but survives, in a reprisal attack for her son Ashkan Rajabi demanding money from another gang member’s mother

JULY 2013 –  Ashkan Rajabi and Bilal Hamze survive an assassination attempt in Wenworthville

OCTOBER 29, 2013 – Mahmoud Hamzy – cousin of Bassim Hamzy – shot dead in Revesby Heights. Five B4L members were later charged with the murder

NOVEMBER 3, 2013 – B4L member Michael Odisho shot but survives 

NOVEMBER 4, 2013 – Masood Zakaria – an Alameddine associate – survives shooting attempt but his 13 year old sister is injured by shotgun pellets

DECEMBER 16, 2013 – Standover man Joe Antoun shot dead in Strathfield

JANUARY 1, 2014 – Farhad Qaumi shot at as his yacht pulls into Rose Bay Marina in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs (pictured) after the NYE fireworks

DECEMBER 11, 2014 – Bassam Hamzy’s mother Lola Hamzy was shot through her front door in Auburn

APRIL 9, 2016 – Safwan Charbaji – a relative of Alameddine associates – shot dead outside a smash repair shop in Condell Park

APRIL 29. 2016 – Wally Ahmad – associate of the Hamzi family – shot dead in Bankstown 

OCTOBER 25, 2016 – Hamad Assad executed in Georges Hall. Assad was suspected of killing Ahmad 

MARCH 20, 2017 – Hell’s Angel bikie Kemel Barakat is shot dead at home in Mortdale

MARCH 28, 2017 – Emed Sleiman is shot dead in his car park in Auburn. He was suspected of killing Barakat

OCTOBER 4, 2020 – Shaylin Zreika – an associate of the Alameddines – is beaten with a metal bar in a street fight in Strathfield

OCTOBER 18, 2020 – Rafat Alameddine’s former home is shot up in a drive-by shooting

OCTOBER 19, 2020 – Mejid Hamzy is shot dead in Condell  Park

JANUARY 30, 2021 – Mustafa Naaman is shot dead in Hurstville in a suspected mistaken identity attack on Ibrahem Hamze

JANUARY 30, 2021 – Mejed Derbas is shot dead in Smithfield

FEBRUARY 15, 2021 – Bilal Hamze’s mother Maha Hamze comes under gunfire again in another drive-by shooting at her home in Auburn

MARCH 12, 2021 – A home linked to the Alameddine family in Guildford is shot up 

JUNE 17, 2021 – Bilal Hamze is shot dead outside Mr Wong’s restaurant in Sydney’s CBD

AUGUST 6, 2021 – Alameddine low-level associate Shady Kanj is shot in Chester Hill and found dead by police in Guildford 

AUGUST 14, 2021 –  Police foil alleged gangland hit on Ibrahim Hamze when they spot stolen Mercedes in North Sydney 

OCTOBER 20, 2021 – Salim and Toufik Hamze are gunned down outside their home in Guildford 

NOVEMBER 10, 2021 – Drive-by shooting at Guildford home of Alameddine associate. No-one is hurt

JANUARY 6, 2022 – Brother of Bassam Hamzy, Ghassan Amoun, is shot dead at 35 years of age in a brazen daylight execution as he sat in a BMW outside an apartment building in Western Sydney.

Police at the scene of the double murder of Salim and Toufik Hamze in Guildford