Inside the gangland war for Sydney organised crime supremacy
In late 2022, tensions were on the Alameddine crime family. The long-time rulers of Sydney’s underworld had survived a years-long feud with the rival Hamzy family, but were left bloodied and bruised and surrounded by police.
As detectives close networks against the notorious Merrylands family, the family’s leaders face a difficult choice: stay in Sydney and risk spending years in a prison cell and losing control of the city’s gangland, or get out while things are going well.
In the end, the head of the family, Rafat Alameddine, chose the latter. Amid increased police scrutiny, he left Australia for his family’s ancestral homeland, Lebanon; where authorities say he ran a sprawling criminal network while living a life of luxury beyond the reach of the law.
But in the years since he and other senior figures moved to the relative safety of the Middle East, infighting over a lack of local leadership has split the Alameddine network, which once bled loyalists.
Now, a new threat to the Alameddine family’s supremacy has emerged – the self-proclaimed Coconut Cartel – amid an escalating conflict over control of Sydney’s lucrative drug trade.
The group has publicly targeted the Alameddine network for several months as part of an increasingly violent campaign to oust the once-feared family from the top of the city’s underbelly, sparking the second major police crackdown on violence linked to organized crime in less than a year.
The retaliation this week was swift and fierce; On Tuesday morning, retired NRL star Matt Utai was ambushed outside his Greenacre home in an attack police believe was motivated by his son Iziah’s alleged links to the Coconut Cartel. The 44-year-old man was shot twice and has since undergone surgery.
Within 24 hours, Iziah Utai’s home in Guildford West was set ablaze, another property linked to him was riddled with bullets and the Alameddine network declared war on the 24-year-old, whom detectives this week described as a “central” figure in the Coconut Cartel and the escalating conflict.
Iziah Utai, also known as Ziggy, is wanted in connection with the murder of Dawood Zakaria, a senior Alameddine figure, last May. The 32-year-old man is believed to have left Australia shortly after he was shot during an assassination attempt on one of his colleagues while passing through western Sydney.
The target of the attack, who cannot be named for legal reasons, survived the shooting. Lawyer Sylvan Singh was traveling in the car with the target Zakaria and another associate when he was shot several times. Zakaria died in hospital a few days after the attack.
Weeks ago, Iziah Utai’s Merrylands barbershop was bombed twice in two days. In June, two days after Zakaria was shot, detectives from Taskforce Falcon, set up to quell violence linked to a conflict within the Alameddine network, arrested a 16-year-old boy over the fires.
In the months since, the Alameddine network has been weakened by the arrest of several senior members, including Ali Elmoubayed, who police claim is the group’s on-the-ground leader.
Rafat Alameddine, wanted for the foiled murder attempt on gangster rival Ibrahim Hamze, still wields significant influence and directs the group’s activities from abroad.
In court documents from 2023, Iziah Utai is described as an associate of the Alameddine network. But attacks on his family this week suggest his loyalty is short-lived.
“F— him and the Coconut Cartel,” a man says in video released by SCN Worldstar showing Iziah Utai’s house being set on fire on Wednesday morning. “This is the fucking beginning of destruction, brother.”
Messages sent shortly afterwards to “rat Ziggy Utai” left little doubt as to which side of the conflict the 24-year-old placed himself on.
Video of a St. Clair home linked to Iziah Utai being riddled with a high-powered rifle went viral shortly after.
“F— you and the Coconut Cartel,” a man can be heard yelling just before more than a dozen shots are fired.
In what the Coconut Cartel said was retaliation for the attacks, members set fire to a car in North Rocks allegedly linked to the Alameddine family.
Like other alleged Coconut Cartel members, Iziah Utai is believed to have escaped the Alameddine network during the mass exodus of foot soldiers who aggressively pursued their former allies.
The group is believed to consist of young men of Pacific islander descent who were once employees of the Alameddine network. The emergence of the Coconut Cartel follows a pattern of gang members once affiliated with the network breaking ranks to challenge the Merrylands-based family.
Members of KVT, a street gang long used as a source of power by the Alameddine family, have also cut ties with their former employers to pursue their part in the drug trade. Some were accused of supplying $16.5 million worth of illegal drugs late last year.
Amid the conflict, the G7, a new street gang made up of teenage boys and teenagers who police say commit violent crimes on both sides of gang conflicts, has emerged as another player in the feud. Several G7 members have been charged over shootings linked to gang violence last year.
The targeting of Iziah Utai and his family this week led to the second major police crackdown on violence linked to organized crime in less than a year. On Wednesday, the NSW Police Raptor Squad, which has long tracked members of the Sydney underworld including the Alameddine family, formed the Halesowen Strike Force to investigate the attacks on Matt Utai and his son.
On Friday, Strike Force Halesowen detectives laid charges against a 15-year-old boy and a 25-year-old man who allegedly shot Matt Utai. Both were charged with attempted murder of the 44-year-old and refused police bail to appear in court on Saturday.
A day earlier, detectives had arrested four teenagers, including a 16-year-old boy, for their alleged role in the attempted murder of Utai and attacks on homes linked to Iziah Utai. Police believe the youths were contracted to carry out the shooting and firebombing of Iziah Utai’s home and that they were working as part of a “criminal-for-hire group”.
Other incidents were also linked to the conflict, including the January firebombing of Bilal Alameddine’s home in Toongabbie.
The Coconut Cartel, which claimed responsibility for the attack, promised to “put a smile” on every Alameddine.
The ability of overseas-based power brokers such as Rafat Alameddine to pull the strings of the current conflict remains a concern for NSW Police, who are working with federal counterparts and international law enforcement to identify and capture many high-value targets living outside Australia.
“We are concerned that individuals from overseas may effectively recruit people in Sydney to commit crimes on their behalf, but they remain essentially out of reach at this stage,” Detective Acting Inspector Brad Abdy, acting commander of the Raptor Squad, said in a statement on Friday.
“They’re not somewhere we can’t reach forever, but there is a process we have to follow.”
Multiple police strike forces, including Halesowen, currently investigating incidents linked to the conflict, are now sharing information to investigate the wider feud and map its key players in the mold of Taskforce Falcon, which was set up in response to the Alameddin days of infighting after Zakaria’s shooting.
“We saw a man get shot, we saw a house get bombed, and we saw another house get hit,” Abdy said.
Meanwhile, detectives are preparing for more tit-for-tat attacks as both sides of the conflict vow to retaliate.
“This is just the beginning,” reads a message allegedly sent by a member of the Alameddine network on Wednesday and published by SCN Worldstar.
“His [sic] It’s a losing battle for you [sic] and all who dare to oppose us.”
Despite Thursday’s arrests and a seemingly relentless crackdown by the Coconut Cartel, Sydney’s self-proclaimed “one and only crime family” claims to remain “forever strong.”
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