The alleged “onshore” leader of the Alameddine crime family has been charged by police with conspiring to murder two gangland rivals.
Ali Elmoubayed, 32, will front Burwood Local Court on Wednesday after police arrested him in Croydon Park on Tuesday.
Mr Elmoubayed has been charged with conspiracy to murder, soliciting another to murder, recruiting a child to carry out criminal activity, and a raft of drug and other offences.
Ali Elmoubayed, 32, arrested outside his Croydon Park home on Tuesday morning. (Supplied)
Police will allege Mr Elmoubayed solicited the murder of Samimjan Azari, who defected from the Alameddines to a rival crime group.
Mr Azari has survived three attempts on his life this year, including a shooting in May that killed Dawood Zakaria at Granville.
Another incident in June saw him running for his life in an Auburn kebab shop as two gunmen stormed the restaurant and opened fire on him, his associates and a worker.
The moment two gunmen fired on Samimjan Azari and an associate on June 17 in an Auburn kebab shop. (Supplied)
Police have said the Alameddines have been involved in a series of tit-for-tat shootings after an internal feud turned deadly this year.
The departure of several of their once-loyal members has resulted in shootings targeting homes and firebombings across Sydney in recent months, police believe.
The Alameddines have long been considered by police to be a key player in Sydney’s drug trade, running a complex organised crime network out of the city’s west.
Their leader, Rafat Alameddine, fled to Lebanon in 2023 and is wanted on a warrant for conspiring to murder two other underworld figures.
In June, Mr Elmoubayed himself avoided a hit man’s bullet by just four minutes after gunmen targeted his home shortly after he left to face court at Parramatta.
CCTV footage of a Porsche believed to be the getaway car used in the shooting on Ali Elmoubayed’s home. (Supplied)
Mr Elmoubayed has also been charged over the alleged conspiracy to murder another underworld adversary at Kogarah Bay in August.
As part of sweeping raids targeting Alameddine associates, a woman and two other men have also been charged and are expected to face court on Wednesday.
The high-profile arrest is to date the biggest yet for NSW Police, which stood up Taskforce Falcon in May to suppress violence resulting from the Alameddines’ ongoing split.
Its focus has been on the splintering crime clan, the group their defectors have joined, the KVT, and another network of alleged guns for hire dubbed “the Afghan crew”.