{"id":493540,"date":"2026-02-21T00:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/493540\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T00:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:40:12","slug":"man-and-15yo-boy-charged-over-shooting-of-former-nrl-player-matt-utai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/493540\/","title":{"rendered":"Man and 15yo boy charged over shooting of former NRL player Matt Utai"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man and a 15-year-old boy have been charged over the shooting of former NRL winger Matt Utai in Sydney’s west.<\/p>\n

Mr Utai, who played for the Tigers and Bulldogs, was shot outside a home in Greenacre on Tuesday by the occupants of an SUV, before they fled the scene.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old was taken to hospital in a serious condition following treatment at the scene by paramedics after being shot in the leg and shoulder.<\/p>\n

Police said an SUV was found on fire a short time later on Samuel Street in Wiley Park.<\/p>\n

Three men and a teenager were earlier this week charged over a spate of shootings and firebombings connected to rising tensions in Sydney’s underworld.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

A man and a 15-year-old boy have been charged over the shooting of Matt Utai. (Supplied: NSW Police)<\/p>\n

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

Police suspect the shooting of Mr Utai 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

About 6:50pm on Friday, officers arrested the 25-year-old in Marsden Park.<\/p>\n

A short time later the 15-year-old boy was arrested in Emerton.<\/p>\n

Police allege the two were the gunmen responsible for the attack on Matt Utai.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Three men and a teenager were arrested on Thursday, including a 19-year-old in Guildford. (Supplied: ABC News)<\/p>\n

Both were taken to Mt Druitt Police Station, where they were charged with shooting with intent to murder and participating in a criminal group contributing to criminal activity.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old was also charged with possessing a prohibited drug.<\/p>\n

The man will appear before a bail court and the teen will appear before a children’s court today.<\/p>\n

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

On Friday, Raptor Squad’s Superintendent Brad Abdy said police were concerned the overseas masterminds of the tit-for-tat violence were orchestrating attacks from the safety of their hideouts.<\/p>\n

“Yes we are concerned about that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That people from overseas are able to effectively task people in Sydney to commit crimes on their behalf while they remain basically tucked away free from reach at this stage.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man and a 15-year-old boy have been charged over the shooting of former NRL winger Matt Utai…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29621,64,63,36369,245398,249012,44,249014,4277,31138,249013],"class_list":{"0":"post-493540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-arson","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-gangs","12":"tag-greenacre","13":"tag-matt-utai-shooting","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nrl-star-shot","16":"tag-nsw-police","17":"tag-raptor-squad","18":"tag-sydney-gangland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493540","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=493540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}