Police charge 25-year-old and 15-year-old with attempted murder of former NRL star

One man and five teenagers, including a 15-year-old, have been arrested over a spate of violent incidents allegedly targeting former NRL star Matt Utai’s son, Iziah, who police say is at the centre of an escalating gangland conflict between an emerging Sydney gang and the notorious Alameddine crime family.

Detectives from the newly formed Strike Force Halesowen arrested a 25-year-old man in Marsden Park and a 15-year-old boy in Emerton about 6.50pm on Friday over Utai’s shooting. The pair were taken to Mount Druitt police station and charged with the 44-year-old’s attempted murder, and for their involvement in an organised crime group.

Detectives will allege the 25-year-old shot Utai, while the 15-year-old drove the pair away in a getaway car. The man was also charged with possessing prohibited drugs. They were both refused bail. The man will appear before a bail court and the teenager before a children’s court on Saturday.

Detective Acting Superintendent Brad Abdy, acting commander of NSW Police’s Raptor Squad, said he found it “very concerning” that several teenagers were involved.

“It’s quite disgusting that criminals who are overseas are now recruiting young people into Australia and essentially consigning them to a particular lifestyle, while they remain offshore,” he told reporters on Saturday, referring to Australian youth.

Abdy said police may not be able to establish whether all six alleged offenders in custody were in the same criminal group, and that they “may be acting independently of each other, with a common criminal goal”.

Matt Utai, a member of the Canterbury Bulldogs’ premiership-winning side in 2004, was shot outside his Greenacre home in a “brazen ambush” on Tuesday morning. Abdy said police spoke to Utai briefly at the hospital, where he remains in a stable condition.

Police on Thursday raided six properties in Riverwood, Guildford, Lilyfield, Villawood and Auburn, arresting two 19-year-old men, an 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy over the shooting of Utai and the firebombing and shooting of homes linked to his 24-year-old son.

Detectives charged the 16-year-old boy with being an accessory after the fact to the attempted murder of Utai, who was shot in the chest and leg as he walked to his car parked outside the home he shares with his wife and children about 6am.

The boy was also charged with supplying a pistol to a person not authorised to possess it and participating in a criminal group. Police will allege he helped Utai’s shooter conceal the pistol used in the attack. He was refused bail to appear in a children’s court on Friday.

Detectives charged Khaldoun Khazma, 19,with being an accessory after the fact to Utai’s attempted murder and participating in a criminal group. Khazma did not apply for bail in Parramatta Local Court on Friday. He was remanded in custody to face the same court on February 24.

Police believe the teenagers were contracted to carry out the shootings and firebombing of Iziah Utai’s home and were working as part of a “criminal for hire group”.

Detectives believe Matt Utai was targeted because of his son’s alleged involvement with the self-proclaimed Coconut Cartel, a “violent criminal organisation” that has been engaged in an increasingly violent feud over control of Sydney’s lucrative drug market.

Less than 24 hours after his father was shot, Iziah Utai’s Guildford West home was set alight, while a St Clair property linked to him was sprayed with bullets.

A video circulated throughout Sydney’s underworld and published by SCN Worldstar shows a person setting the front of the Guildford West property alight.

“F— him and the Coconut Cartel … this is the start of the destruction,” a person says in the video.

Abdy confirmed that police were still searching for two more people involved in the St Clair shooting, and possibly a third offender for the Guildford West fire.

In December, several shots were fired at the same home. Two women and a child were inside at the time but were uninjured. Last May, Iziah Utai’s Merrylands barbershop was firebombed twice in two days.

Detectives on Thursday also arrested Mohamad Hussein, 18, and Issa Rijab, 19, over the fire, charging both with damaging property and participating in a criminal group. Hussein was granted conditional police bail to appear in Bankstown Local Court on March 10.

Rijab was also charged with drug supply offences related to a kilogram of cocaine allegedly found at his Villawood home. He sought bail at Bankstown Local Court on Friday, his lawyer citing his young age, risk of institutionalisation and police co-operation as reasons for his release. Bail was refused, and his matter was adjourned to Burwood Local Court on April 19.

No arrests have been made over the St Clair shooting. Video published by SCN Worldstar shows several shots being fired at the front of the Menzies Circuit home from a high-powered rifle.

Iziah Utai left Australia shortly after senior underworld figure Dawood Zakaria was killed in a botched assassination attempt on one of his associates in May, and is believed to be residing overseas. A warrant for Iziah Utai’s arrest in relation to Zakaria’s murder has been issued.

Police allegedly seized three vehicles, knuckle dusters, electronic devices and items of clothing during Thursday’s raids.

The Coconut Cartel has emerged as the main rival of the Alameddine crime family, which police have long alleged controls Sydney’s illicit drug market. The Coconut Cartel is believed to be comprised of young men, including many of Pacific Islander descent, who have defected from the Alameddine network as it has fractured over several years.

Utai’s shooting and the targeting of homes linked to his son marked the most significant escalation of the conflict and sparked the establishment of Strike Force Halesowen, a 100-strong police taskforce to quell the violent feud.

The conflict between the two groups has been escalating since the splintering of the Alameddine network after several senior members defected from the group to form their own rival crime syndicate.

The defections sparked a gangland war and a series of retaliatory shootings in which several people were injured or killed. Police have not publicly linked that conflict to the current feud between the Alameddine network and the Coconut Cartel.

“It’s extremely serious,” Abdy said.

“We’ve seen one man shot, we’ve seen a house firebombed, and we’ve seen the shooting of another house.”

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