Sydney’s fatal underworld conflict is said to have started as a result of a violent altercation between rival criminals Alameddine and Hamzy at an airport.
As John Ray Bayssari, 31, an ally of Alameddine, is approached by Hamzy associate Dagher Ghamrawi, 41, at Ballina Airport, the entrance to the well-known NSW vacation destination Byron Bay, fists are instantly thrown.
Terrified spectators watch as a mom is compelled to grab her little daughter and run for shelter as the guys battle and toss one other to the ground within meters from other young families.
High-ranking Hamzy family member Ghassan Amoun rushes into the terminal and joins the fighting men as Alameddine member Benjamin Barakat, 30, begins to assault a Hamzy associate.
A lady tries to break up the fight as he starts punching Bayssari, and then a lone security guy is sent to break up the five big men.
As the fight rages on, a fifth guy, 39-year-old Hamzy gang member Rodriguez Henrique, is seen racing to join the altercation.
Amoun and Bayssari at one point wind up on the conveyer belt for the baggage.
In the fight, one of the guys loses both of his shoes, while another pair can be seen utilizing the terminal’s concrete as their own little boxing ring.
Four males were accused of fighting in connection with the event by the NSW Police Criminal Group in August; Barakat just pleaded guilty at Fairfield Local Court.
According to Nine Newspapers, three have appeared before courts in western Sydney but have not yet entered a plea.
The violent airport altercation in February 2021 ended up being a foreboding precursor to the gangland war that followed, which has resulted in at least 14 killings.
Ghassan Amoun, a lieutenant in the Brothers 4 Life gang, was shot on January 6, 2022, in South Wentworthville during the day.
As the 35-year-old was getting into a vehicle after leaving the Lady Laser salon about noon, he was ambushed and fatally shot twice in the head.
Amoun had been warned by the police that he was a “marked guy” and the next person to be killed.
The males engaged in the airport fight were not implicated in the gangland hit in any way, according to Daily Mail Australia.
He was buried in the same cemetery as his elder brother Mejid Hamze, who had also been shot dead 15 months previously, at Rockwood Cemetery.
Amoun was the most recent member of the Hamzy family to die in the escalating underground conflict with the Alameddine criminal network at the time, but he wouldn’t be the last.
When Salim Hamze, 18, and his father Toufik, 64, were shot dead in October 2021, the Hamze-Alameddine gangland conflict intensified even further.
The two were killed in front of their Guildford house as they were ready to go for work in their beat-up old Nissan Navara pickup.
His father was a completely innocent victim of the gang conflict, while Salim had tenuous links to the Hamzy gang but wasn’t linked to them.
Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad, also known as “Mr. Big,” was shot and killed in a shower of gunfire in April 2022 after being informed by authorities that he had a $1 million reward on his head for his involvement in a fatal shooting in Greenacre.
Bikers from Comanchero with connections to the Alameddine family, Tarek Zahed and his brother Omar, were fired at in May while they worked out at an Auburn gym.
Tarek miraculously lived after being shot ten times, including in the face, while Omar passed away at the scene.
Three months later, Tarek was taken into custody for his involvement in a murder committed in 2014’s underground, and he last week appeared in court via video connection from Long Bay prison.
Rami Iskander, 23, a nephew of Brownie Ahmad, was shot in the torso at his Belmore home in May in front of his expectant wife and a two-year-old kid.
The Australian Federal Police and intelligence agencies joined forces with state police to form Strikeforce Erebus in the same month to attempt to combat the escalating issue of gang violence.
Former Lone Wolf biker Yusuf Nazlioglu passed away in the hospital in June, a day after being shot ten times in a Rhodes underground parking garage.
A former gangster’s wife Lametta Fadlallah and her hairdresser Amy Al-Hazzouri were both shot to death inside a vehicle two months later.
The event was classified by police as a “targeted assassination.”