Staff Writers
The Daily Telegraph
October 30,2013
VIOLENT gang members are taunting police by driving around Sydney in expensive cars with number plates that use the initials of police squads.
At the scene of a fatal shooting of a Brothers 4 Life member in Revesby Heights yesterday were two cars with the plates MEOC and MEOC 63.
MEOCS is the acronym used by NSW Police for the specialist Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad, which targets ethnic-based crime, particularly in southwestern Sydney. Brothers 4 Life are one of their main targets.
Parked outside the unit block where Mahmoud Hamzy was shot dead early yesterday was a $150,000 Mustang with the number plate MEOC and a $100,000 Mercedes with MEOC 63.
Hamzy, 25, was the cousin of Bassam Hamzy, one of Australia most notorious gangsters and the founder of the Brothers 4 Life gang.
Mahmoud Hamzy died at the scene about 12.30am when as many as three gunmen sprayed a garage with bullets. Omar Ajaj, a 24-year-old associate, suffered wounds to the stomach and leg. Initial ballistics reports indicate two weapons were used.
Although the murder victim had no criminal record, police had 60 intelligence reports on his criminal activity. Inside the home when the killers opened fire was another cousin and Brothers 4 Life member Hamoudi Hamzy. Other family members, including his wife, escaped unharmed.
A young man who pulled up at the crime scene in Bardo Circuit about 7am was in the silver Mustang, which is registered to the unlicensed Hamoudi. "It was like fireworks and an early New Year's Eve,'' the young man said before getting back in the Mustang and driving off.
Deputy Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas said the group was nothing but a loose association of cowards who were "not very good at what they do''.
"They would be lucky to be brothers for today because they turn on each other so much," he said. "They only act in large groups, never alone.''
He said gangs using police squad acronyms on number plates was an issue for the government to deal with and police were powerless to act.
"But it shows how immature they are. It is like advertising they are criminals, which isn't very smart," he said.
A check of the personalised number plate registry revealed seven registration variations using MEOC have been bought for $440 a year.
They include MEOC, MEOCS, MEOC 51, MEOC 52, MEOC 56, MEOC 58 and MEOC 63.
NSW Police Association president Scott Weber said: "It's insulting and stupid. There should be a no-go policy relating to people registering cars with police squad acronyms.''
A neighbour at Revesby Heights said he was woken by as many as 10 gunshots outside the recently built 40-plus unit complex and then heard a car speeding off.
"Maximum 10, I believe, I am not sure, - I have never used weapons in my life," the witness said.
"I would say it wasn't automatic because the space between (each shot). Wasn't automatic.
"Of course I am concerned. I have only lived here two, three months and in two weeks I'll be out."
Father-of-two Sanjeev Kumar said it was terrifying someone had been shot dead less than 100m from his Thomas St home, which is near the entrance to Bardo Circuit.
The accountant said there had been another shooting earlier in the year and officers had been out in force in the street previously.
On July 23, one shot was fired in Bardo Circuit before three cars were seen speeding away.
Police have formed Strike Force Roxana to investigate the shootings.
"While last night's attack is very concerning, I do want to highlight that public place shooting incidents in Sydney have decreased over the past two months," Mr Kaldas said.
"Since Operation Talon commenced in August . . . shootings into properties has reduced by more than 50 per cent."
Police Minister Michael Gallacher last night declined to comment on whether the government would move to ban the offending number plates.
THE Brothers 4 Life gang began as a show of support to their jailed "brother" Bassam Hamzy and was largely made up of the notorious criminal's relatives.
Police say BFL was founded by Hamzy from inside his cell at Lithgow's high security jail in about 2002.
Hamzy was jailed more than a decade ago for the 1998 shooting murder of Kris Toumazis at a Sydney nightclub.
He was also convicted for conspiring to murder a witness who was due to give evidence against him.
Each time Hamzy faced court, supporters turned up in T-shirts with BFL's insignia: two crossed AK-47 machine guns over the words "Brothers 4 Life".
Hamzy initially kept tabs on the group through mobile phones smuggled into jail but after he was caught running a drug network, his contact with the outside world was severely restricted.
Police are confident Hamzy now has little involvement with BFL, which is now run by would-be gangsters who idolise their jailed founder.
In the past decade, BFL members have been involved in serious crimes including drug offences, murders, stabbings and shootings.
The group aligned with the Bandidos bikie gang and the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in 2009, leading to repeated clashes with rival gangs.
In October last year, a man was shot dead at Greenacre while sitting in the passenger seat of a car bearing number plates BFL. Police said the victim was caught up in an internal gang rift.
The Islamic Menace
