Tobacco and toe-cutting: The black market driving gang violence
Court documents, obtained by the Herald, claim up to 20 violent tobacco and vape thefts, known as 'rips', have fuelled the underworld conflict that has led gunmen to open fire on public streets.
The sun had just set on January 4 this year, when a senior member of an Alameddine organised crime network (OCN) subgroup, known as Proper 60, met with two associates, Ahmed Dudu and Mohamad Kaddour, on a suburban street in Merrylands.
The senior operative, his two associates and six other henchmen travelled in a convoy of rental trucks and vans to an industrial complex in Condell Park.
They allegedly forced their way through the front door of Unit 11 and loaded up more than a tonne of tobacco products, which police suspect had been imported illegally.
The gang cut the CCTV and power, which alerted the owners of the storage unit. Three men arrived at the unit about half an hour later to figure out what was happening. The Alameddines allegedly smashed their car window and dragged the three men out, bashing one savagely.
The trio of captives was allegedly marched at knifepoint into the smashed industrial unit and up to an office area. '[One man] was forced to bind the hands and feet of (the other two) with tape,' a police document alleges.
The man was then allegedly ordered to bind his own feet.
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