The brazen daylight assassination of two members of Sydney’s notorious Hamze family is the latest in a series of brazen hits ordered on the underworld clan.
Salim Hamze, 18, and his father Toufik, 64, were found dead in a red ute on Osgood Street in Guildford in the city’s west on Wednesday morning.
The pair are the third and fourth members of the family to be gunned down in the space of a year with the shooting believed to be part of a bloody street war between the Alameddine and Hamze (sometimes referred to as ‘Hamzy’) clans.
In June, Bilal Hamze, the crime boss cousin of Brothers for Life founder Bassam Hamzy, was executed in a drive-by shooting after leaving the Kid Kyoto restaurant on Bridge St in Sydney’s CBD.
Bilal, 34, had a bounty on his head when he was shot twice in the stomach and once in the shoulder in front of shocked onlookers.
Salim Hamze and his father Toufik were found slumped in a red ute (pictured) following reports of a shooting in Guildford on Wednesday morning
Bilal was hiding out in the city amid underworld conflict with members of the rival Alameddine clan.
His public assassination came after his own mother Maha Hamze’s home in Auburn was the target of a drive-by shooting in February.
Pictured: Jailed crime boss Brothers 4 Life gang leader Bassam Hamzy
No one inside was injured but a nurse at a nearby hospital was hurt when a stray bullet destroyed a window she was standing near.
In October last year, Mejid Hamzy – Bassam’s younger brother – was gunned down in broad daylight outside his Condell Park home.
Two brothers allegedly linked to the Alameddine family have been arrested over the fatal shooting of Mejid, but police believe the gunmen are still at large.
A friend of the Alameddine family was seriously assaulted with a pole in the days before Mejid was shot to death.
In September, police released CCTV footage of two hooded men fleeing from the scene moments after Mejid was shot dead as they continue to hunt for the killers.
Underworld figure Mejid Hamzy (pictured), who was gunned down outside his southwestern Sydney house last year
The CCTV captured the face and distinct blond hair of one the men briefly exposed after his hoodie fell off while fleeing the scene through the reserve before clambering into two luxury cars.
Bassam Hamzy meanwhile is serving a 40-year sentence inside Australia’s toughest prison, Goulburn’s Supermax, for a spate of crimes including ones he commissioned from behind bars.
In 2007, Bassam established the Brothers 4 Life gang from his jail cell before using a network of secret phones to coordinate their crimes – including a massive drug ring.
Bassam’s father Khaled (left) moved his family to Australia in the 1970s and was himself jailed in the mid-1990s on drugs charges. Bassam’s cousin Mohammed ‘Little Crazy’ Hamzy (right) is currently serving time in jail for shooting two men in 2012. He was stabbed in prison last week
Mejid and Bassam’s father Khaled Hamzy died last August after a long battle with illness, with the family’s most infamous member not allowed to attend the funeral or watch from jail.
Family patriarch Khaled first moved his family to Australia in the 1970s as civil war erupted in Lebanon.
Khaled was himself jailed for his role in a highly sophisticated drug syndicate in the 1990s.
Mahmoud Hamzy (pictured), a fellow Brothers 4 Life member, was shot dead in 2013 in an attempt on another cousin, Mohammed ‘Little Crazy’ Hamzy
In June Bilal Hamze was executed in a drive-by shooting after leaving the Kid Kyoto restaurant in Sydney’s CBD. Dozens of male mourners are pictured carrying his green coffin – emblazoned with Arabic writing – into a Lakemba mosque at his funeral
Bilal Hamzy, the cousin of Bassam, was executed in a drive-by shooting in Sydney’s CBD in June (pictured above sequence of events)
His sons were quick to follow in his criminal footsteps, with Bassam Hamzy convicted in 1999 of the murder of a teenage boy outside a Sydney nightclub.
Bassam’s cousin Mahmoud, a fellow Brothers 4 Life member, was also shot dead in 2013 as he was caught in the middle of an attempt on another cousin, Mohammed ‘Little Crazy’ Hamzy.
Mohammed, again a Brothers 4 Life devotee, was stabbed in prison in October 2020 – where he is serving time for shooting two men in 2012.
Retired NSW detective turned Western Sydney University lecturer Michael Kennedy told Daily Mail Australia in June he has seen generations of organised crime groups in Sydney.
He said that despite the hard tactics of police, antagonising these groups is in his opinion not the best way to go about it.
Shady Kanj, 22, was shot and killed in Western Sydney in August in an incident believed to be linked to the Hamzy and Alameddine gangs
‘If you use the word “mafia” it gives the wrong idea, but it’s essentially the same thing in that you have a close knit system,’ Professor Kennedy said.
In August, Shady Kanj, 22, was killed in a shooting in western Sydney understood to be linked to the Hamzy and Alameddine gangs.
Paramedics were called and treated Kanj but he died from his wounds at the scene.
A second man who happened to be sitting in a parked car on Boundary Rd with his brother when the gunman opened fire was also shot.
He was watching sport on a mobile phone when a stray bullet hit him in the head – but he somehow survived.
A suspected murder attempt against Ibrahem Hamze (left) was in August foiled following a police traffic stop in North Sydney
The same month, a suspected murder attempt against a member of the Hamze clan was foiled following a police traffic stop in Sydney’s north.
Police believe gangland rivals had been planning to carry out an attack on Ibrahem Hamze, the younger brother of Bilal, when a stolen Mercedes was spotted on Walker Street on August 14.
The driver allegedly refused to stop the vehicle for officers before speeding off and running through a red light.
But the car suffered a flat tyre forcing the driver and another passenger to abandon the vehicle on Miller Street at Cammeray.
BASSAM HAMZY: NOTORIOUS FAMILY’S JAILED CRIME BOSS
Bassam Hamzy is serving a 40-year sentence inside Australia’s toughest prison, Goulburn’s Supermax
Bassam Hamzy has been behind bars since early 1999 for a string of serious crimes including drug supply, murder and conspiracy to murder. He will not be eligible for parole until at least 2035.
He is serving a 40-year sentence inside Australia’s toughest prison, Goulburn’s Supermax, for a spate of crimes including ones he commissioned from behind bars.
In 2007, Bassam established the Brothers 4 Life gang from his jail cell before using a network of secret phones to coordinate their crimes – including a massive drug ring.
Seven years later in 2014, a gang war commenced between Hamzy associates and a man only known as XL, whose identity remains suppressed for legal reasons.
His father Khaled Hamzy died last August after a long battle with illness, with the family’s most infamous member not allowed to attend the funeral or watch from jail.
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