{"id":491199,"date":"2026-02-19T23:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491199\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T23:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:55:10","slug":"three-men-one-teen-charged-over-gangland-attacks-linked-to-coconut-cartel-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491199\/","title":{"rendered":"Three men, one teen charged over gangland attacks linked to ‘Coconut Cartel’ conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three men and one teenager have been charged over a spate of shootings and firebombings connected to rising tensions in the city’s underworld.<\/p>\n

Police believe conflict between the once-powerful Alameddine crime family and a group dubbed the ‘Coconut Cartel’ culminated in the shooting of Matt Utai on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The former NRL winger was shot leaving a home in Greenacre just after 6am in what police suspect was an attack targeting his son Iziah Utai.<\/p>\n

Iziah Utai, believed to be overseas, is a former associate of the Alameddine network and police this week said they were investigating his links to the Coconut Cartel.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

Former Bulldogs and Tigers winger, Matt Utai, who was shot in Greenacre this week. (AAP Image\/Action Photographics, Robb Cox)<\/p>\n

A day after the shooting, a video showed a man firing shots into a St Clair home and saying: “Utai’s family in-law \u2026 f*** you and the Coconut Cartel”.<\/p>\n

Shortly after another video showed Iziah Utai’s Guildford West home being set alight, with a voice in the background saying: “This is the start of the destruction brother”.<\/p>\n

The same property was shot at in December and in May last year a barbershop owned by Iziah Utai was firebombed two nights in a row.<\/p>\n

Raptor Squad Superintendent Brad Abdy this week said the attacks targeting innocent family members were “ridiculously disgusting”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Superintendent Abdy described the Coconut Cartel as a “crime for hire” group responible for offences committed across Sydney. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Superintendent Abdy described the Coconut Cartel as a “crime for hire group” who had been posting their attacks on members of the Alameddines online since December.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Raptor Squad’s Strike Force Halesowen conducted several raids across Western Sydney in relation to the attacks.<\/p>\n

In Guildford, a 19-year-old man was arrested and charged with a series of offences after police claim he allegedly picked up the gunman who shot Matt Utai.<\/p>\n

A 16-year-old boy, who police allege handled the gun used to shoot the 44-year-old Bulldogs premiership winner, was arrested and charged in Auburn.<\/p>\n

The pair will front the Parramatta Local Court and the Childrens Court on Friday.<\/p>\n

An 18-year-old and a 19-year-old were also charged with the firebombing on Iziah Utai’s home in Guildford West this week.<\/p>\n

The younger man was granted bail to face Bankstown Local Court in March while the 19-year-old was also charged with drug supply offences to appear in the same court on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three men and one teenager have been charged over a spate of shootings and firebombings connected to rising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[248117,248114,91524,64,63,248113,248115,248116,248111,44,158,1158,4905,248112],"class_list":["post-491199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-raptor-squad-superintendent-brad-abdy","tag-coconut-cartel","tag-alameddine-crime-family","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-greenacre-shooting","tag-iziah-utai","tag-iziah-utais-guildford-west-home","tag-matt-utai","tag-news","tag-nrl","tag-police","tag-shooting","tag-shooting-of-former-nrl-player-matt-utai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491199","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=491199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}