Sydney gang member shot dead in Vietnam amid underworld feud
A senior member of the Coconut Cartel, a gang locked in a months-long feud with the notorious Alameddine crime family, has been shot dead in Vietnam.
Gangland police are investigating whether the overnight shooting of Lorenzo Laemalu in Ho Chi Minh City is linked to the cartel’s ongoing conflict with the Alameddine network, which has been the target of constant attacks by the cartel and other rival groups vying for control of the Sydney underworld.
Police believe Laemalu is one of several high-ranking Coconut Cartel members who fled Australia and directed the group’s activities from Southeast Asia. Detectives are investigating the possibility that Laemalu’s death is linked to the cartel’s activities abroad. A second cartel member is believed to have been killed in the shootout.
Images published by SCN World StarFollowing the attack, two men lie on the ground covered in blood in what appears to be a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, The Guardian, an independent media outlet used by members of the Sydney underworld to share footage of targeted attacks, reported.
Anthony Pele and Iziah Utai, the other alleged ringleaders of the cartel, are also believed to have fled Australia and are in the region. Pele remains wanted by NSW Police on various arrest warrants.
Utai left Australia shortly after underworld figure Dawood Zakaria, the older brother of Masood Zakaria, the Alameddine network’s former second-in-command, was killed in a failed assassination attempt on one of his associates last May. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Iziah Utai in connection with the murder of Dawood Zakaria.
Utai’s father, retired NRL star Matt Utai, was seriously injured in a shooting outside his Greenacre home in February during a series of attacks that detectives believe targeted the 2004 premier’s son.
Laemalu is a former ally of rapper Ay Huncho, whose legal name is Ali Younes. Younes is alleged to be a senior member of the Alameddine network and the cousin of the family’s fugitive head Rafat Alameddine, who remains wanted by NSW Police over an alleged plot to murder gang rival Ibrahim Hamze. Alameddine has been in Lebanon since leaving Australia in late 2022 due to increased police scrutiny.
Sydney rapper Nasa Nova, whose legal name is Manasa Naacakalou, shared a photo of herself and Laemalu leaving Wollongong Local Court together in 2022 on social media on Friday morning.
Laemalu and Naacakalou were sentenced to a supervision order in February 2022 on charges of affray. Both appeared in Younes’ music videos.
The Coconut Cartel declared war on the Alameddine network in January, vowing to destroy what was left of the Merrylands clan’s local operations.
The cartel, along with other groups of former Alameddine network members and allies, claimed responsibility for several attacks on the family as they attempted to gain control of Sydney’s illicit drug market.
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