Sydney gang feud: Ex-Kiwis star’s wanted son escapes armed attack at Spanish hideout

Multiple Australian media outlets including the Daily Telegraph and the ABC have reported Iziah Utai was targeted by a group of armed men while hiding out in a resort in Spain.

Iziah Utai has reportedly survived an attempted “hit” on him while hiding out in Marbella, Spain.

The outlets say the group, armed with firearms, tried to break into his accommodation in Marbella.

Utai – who has previous convictions relating to firearms, drugs, armed robbery, and possessing weapons and cash – reportedly managed to escape.

The Daily Telegraph reported its underworld sources described the incident as a “failed hit”.

The ABC reported Utai had “survived an attack on his life”.

In an Instagram post on Tuesday, the day the armed men are reported to have tried to gain access to the property in Spain, Utai wrote: “Better luck next time. O wait there won’t be”.

Iziah Utai uploaded this post to Instagram, before deactivating his account.

Since then, Utai appears to have removed the social media account.

Marbella is a resort city on the Costa del Sol along the Mediterranean Sea. It has long been known as a hideout for wanted organised crime figures from around the world; the area is dubbed the “Costa del Crime”.

The Herald has approached New South Wales police for comment.

Aussie gang expert: Spain a ‘very dumb’ place to hide out

The New South Wales Police hunt for Utai has been global since mid-2025.

Utai fled Australia just days after Zakaria was gunned down in a car while stopped at a set of traffic lights in Sydney.

Authorities believe he escaped Australia using a false passport.

His father Matt Utai – a star for the Kiwis and the Bulldogs league sides in the early-2000s – was left critically injured after being shot outside his Sydney home on February 17.

Former Kiwis and NRL Premiership winner Matt Utai was left fighting for his life after being involved in a shooting in Sydney’s south-west. Photo / NewsWire, Photosport

Shortly after that shooting, homicide detectives confirmed there was an arrest warrant out for his son for “alleged criminal group-related offences” related to Zakaria’s murder.

The Herald reported in April the hunt for Utai had involved detectives – including Asian-based officers from the Australian Federal Police – searching for him in Asia.

That included potential hideouts in Thailand.

Before the incident in Marbella, Utai claimed on social media he had been in Asia, Dubai and Albania.

Iziah Utai, the son of ex-Kiwis player Matt Utai who was critically injured in a drive-by shooting, has reported links to Sydney’s underworld and convictions for firearms, drugs and armed robbery. Photo / Supplied

Prominent Australian organised crime and gang expert Mark Lauchs told the Herald he thought it was “very dumb” trying to hide out in Spain given local authorities had cracked down on people wanted by foreign authorities hiding out there.

“There was a history of guys going to Spain in the ’90s, but I don’t think you’re going to be safe there now,” he said.

“It’s not like an African country or a Southeast Asian country with a really high level of corruption where you can pay people.”

Senior Coconut Cartel gang member Lorenzo Lemalu – seen here in a restaurant in Dubai – was shot and killed in a suspected gang-ordered hit in Vietnam.

The attempted “hit” on Utai comes just four months after Coconut Cartel leader Lorenzo Lemalu was gunned down and killed, and another gang associate badly injured, outside a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Australian authorities believe the killing is linked to the deadly feud between the Alameddine crime network and the Coconut Cartel.

Two men were later arrested and charged in relation to the shooting. Vietnam’s Ministry for Public Security said they were detained near the Vietnam-Cambodia border.

A social media post by Iziah Utai claiming to be in front of superyachts in Albania.

Vietnamese authorities also claimed Lemalu was killed “under the direction of an individual abroad”.

Earlier this month, the Australian Federal Police and Samoa Police revealed two more men, a Samoan and a New Zealander, had been arrested in Samoa and charged with conspiracy to murder over the incident.

Lauchs, a former associate professor at Queensland University of Technology’s Centre for Justice, said the fatal shooting of Lemalu and attempted attack on Utai highlighted how those wanted by rival Sydney gangs still weren’t safe even if they were hiding overseas.

He believed gangs were also using readily available tools such as AI, including ChatGPT, to try to locate rivals.

Iziah Utai's Western Sydney barbershop before it was targeted by two arson attacks last year. It is now permanently closed. Photo / Supplied Iziah Utai’s Western Sydney barbershop before it was targeted by two arson attacks last year. It is now permanently closed. Photo / Supplied

“They’ll be using every piece of advice they can get,” Lauchs said.

“The police use AI to try and track these guys as well. AI’s going to be smarter than 90% of some of these blokes, including the guys who are trying to hide.”

Guns, fast cars and mocking gang rivals and police – Iziah Utai’s social media blitz

Utai had been active on Instagram in the three months leading up to last week’s incident in Marbella.

In June, after media coverage about his possible hideout location in Thailand, photos appeared on Utai’s social media channel of him on an Emirates plane, with a geotag location saying he was in the Middle East.

Other pictures showed him eating in a high-end restaurant and wearing what appeared to be diamond-encrusted sunglasses.

Iziah Utai has shared multiple social media posts of him in sports cars, this one geotagged in Albania.

In one of the photos at the restaurant, multiple phones were on the table in front of him.

Since then, and leading up to the incident in Spain, Utai has shared photos and videos of him in sports cars, in front of superyachts and also apparently in Albania.

A week before he was targeted in Marbella, Utai shared a photo of him pointing a pistol at the camera, while holding a heavy machine gun in the other hand, with assault rifles in the background.

In the photo he is seen wearing a Toronto Raptors NBA franchise singlet. The specialist police squad investigating gang-related crime in Sydney is called the Raptor Squad.

Prominent Australian organised crime and gang expert Mark Lauchs says it is a well-known tactic for known criminals to publish social media posts from false locations.

One of the posts also included a backing track of rap band N.W.A’s notorious F*** tha Police.

A month earlier he had taunted the Alameddine crime network via social media after superimposing the faces of senior members on targets at a shooting range he had visited.

A caption on one of his posts stated: “The stuff AI b [sic] doing these days is crazy”.

Lauchs said while Utai had tagged specific geographical locations on some of his posts, it was a well-known tactic of wanted criminals to use social media to create false impressions of their whereabouts.

Iziah Utai claimed to have visited Mecca.

“A lot of it’s been to deceive where they really are,” he told the Herald.

“They’re not all going to be that dumb, so you’ve got to think that a lot of these photos are going to be designed to put attention not just for the police, but the other people trying to knock him off, as to where he is or isn’t.

“But there’s also the bragging side which is very important… [as if to say], ‘Look at me, you can’t catch me’. Bragging rights is pretty important.”

Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 34 years of newsroom experience.

Tags: