WOLLERT, VIC. — With ongoing underworld speculation that the jailing of the boss or ‘rooster’ Kaz Hamad in an Iraqi prison late last year has left his Melbourne criminal empire without a ‘leader’, his underlings are fighting for prominence. “That’s what happens when you take the rooster away. The chickens run wild,” an underworld figure said.
Mohammed Al-Bdairi was a 42-year-old Iraqi refugee and high-ranking member of Kazem Hamad’s “313” crew in Melbourne who was shot dead at his Wollert home yesterday in a suspected gangland attack.
An underworld figure with knowledge of the Wollert shooting said that the hit team waited for hours, observing in a car parked across the road from Mr Al-Bdairi’s Gypsum Drive, Wollert home before making their move at about 5.30pm on Thursday, October 15.
Investigators understand the shooter kicked down the door, fired several shots, then fled.
It is understood police investigators are having difficulty gathering information as those involved in the underworld are unlikely to break the ‘criminal code of silence’ -or as they say in the criminal underworld – “snitches end up in ditches.”
Whether amongst petty criminals or underworld ‘heavyweights’, those who give information to police are known as ‘dogs’, not ‘informers’ or ‘informants’ as police call them.
“On the inside, calling someone a dog is going to cause very big problems. The meaning of a dog in jail, or amongst criminals, is an informer, so to call someone a dog is to accuse them of giving info to screws [prison guards/corrections officers] or police about other inmates or criminals. Dogs are one of the most hated people in jail … ” a former 1970s Pentridge Prison ‘heavyweight’ told VicNews.
One neighbour witnessed the aftermath of the shooting, emerging from his home to see a woman, understood to be Mr Al-Bdairi’s wife, wailing in extreme distress.
“There was a girl sitting there for a very long time. She was screaming and crying on the street,” said Manav Matharoo.
“Her family was living nearby, and they came to try and console her.”
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said as far back as February that cracks had emerged.
“Due to Hamad’s arrest, a lack of leadership, infighting and dysfunction within the syndicate is creating new opportunities for investigators,” she said at the time.
Homicide Squad Detective Acting Inspector Paul Scarlett said on Friday the victim was a known criminal figure.
Insp. Scarlett said detectives would explore whether the killing was related to the spate of firebombings around Melbourne in recent weeks.
He said there were likely multiple offenders on the run.
“We do believe this person (Mr Al-Bdairi) has links to organised crime,” Insp. Scarlett said.
He said the force was prepared for retaliation attacks.
“We’re conscious of it. We have no information at this stage to suggest that’s going to occur, but we will keep an open mind,” he added.
Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission Deputy CEO Adam Meyer last week told the Herald Sun that police and organised crime were in a technology arms race amid an explosion in use of the technique.
“Crime-as-a-service” involves the use of encrypted apps to recruit people prepared to carry out high-level crimes, a model likened to an Airtasker for the underworld.
It is likely police will examine whether the hit was one of the “crime-as-a-service” jobs.
Mohammed Al-Bdairi was an Iraqi refugee whose visa was cancelled in 2019, but he later won a life-changing victory when the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) overturned the ruling on December 27, 2022.
