{"id":410923,"date":"2026-01-13T22:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410923\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T22:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:19:09","slug":"deported-melbourne-tobacco-kingpin-kazem-hamad-arrested-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410923\/","title":{"rendered":"Deported Melbourne tobacco kingpin Kazem Hamad arrested in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Melbourne man who was deported to Iraq has been arrested overseas for alleged drug importation and smuggling.<\/p>\n

Convicted drug trafficker Kazem Hamad \u2014 also known as Kadhim Malik Hamad Rabah al-Hajami \u2014 was one of the key players in Melbourne’s tobacco wars.<\/p>\n

Australian Federal Police (AFP) has confirmed Hamad’s identity.<\/p>\n

Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation has issued a statement announcing the arrest<\/a> in response to an official request from Australia.<\/p>\n

It stated that the arrest was conducted in coordination with the General Directorate of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Affairs at the Ministry of Interior, after obtaining the necessary approvals from the Supreme Judicial Council.<\/p>\n

The proceedings were initiated by the First Karkh Investigation Court, which specialises in drug cases.<\/p>\n

“The accused is one of the most dangerous wanted men in the world,” the center alleged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He is responsible for importing large quantities of drugs into Iraq and Australia, as well as smuggling heroin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He is also involved with the most prominent organised crime gangs in Australia \u2014 Sydney, responsible for shootings, murders, kidnappings, violent assaults, extortion, and drug imports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Furthermore, he is involved with outlaw gangs that have extensive influence within Australia and the Middle East and are responsible for carrying out murders, shootings, money laundering, fraud, assaults, arson, and drug trafficking on a global level.”<\/p>\n

\"Kazem<\/p>\n

Kazem “Kaz” Hamad was deported from Australia in 2023. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Hamad was deported from Australia in 2023 and has been a key person of interest relating to firebombings at Victorian tobacco shops and businesses.<\/p>\n

In a past Victorian court case, police have said they believed Hamad had orchestrated a series of firebombing attacks on his rivals or Melbourne shop owners who defied his alleged standover men.<\/p>\n

They said exorbitant extortion fees became known in Melbourne as the “Kaz tax”.<\/p>\n

Senior police had also confirmed in the past that he was being looked at as part of the investigation into the firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue in December 2024.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for AFP said a statement would be released later on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Melbourne man who was deported to Iraq has been arrested overseas for alleged drug importation and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,29622,18068,1076,217429,44,38297],"class_list":["post-410923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-federal-police","tag-illegal-tobacco","tag-iraq","tag-kazem-hamad","tag-news","tag-underworld"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}