Updated ,first published
The five-person crew behind the alleged gunpoint abduction of a Sydney rapper’s bodyguard has been charged by the state’s anti-gang detectives, a day after the man was snatched from a Guildford home in the latest targeted attack on the Alameddine crime family.
Emilio Chalhoub, 32, was allegedly beaten by the group of masked men after being kidnapped from his family’s Guildford home on Monday night, triggering an expansive police operation that led detectives to a safe house by the Hume Highway in Casula, where the group fled before being arrested in a nearby street. Chalhoub was recovered in Casula about an hour after he was bundled into his own car, and was hospitalised with facial injuries.
Chalhoub is the bodyguard of rapper Ali Younes, aka Ay Huncho, an alleged senior member of the Alameddine organised crime network. Last year, Chalhoub was the intended target of an attack at his Guildford home in which his 62-year-old father was allegedly stabbed by two intruders – a 15-year-old boy and a 22-year-old man – at the height of an internal conflict within the fractured Alameddine network.
Luke Manuatu, 22, Anaru Warren, 22, Hikairo Mohi, 21, Harley Sorbello, 21, and a 15-year-old boy have been charged with a raft of offences following Chalhoub’s abduction.
This includes kidnapping and causing actual bodily harm, possessing an unauthorised firearm, wearing a face covering with intent to commit an indictable offence, destroying property greater than $5000 using fire, and aggravated use of a car armed with a weapon.
The four men were refused bail to appear at Liverpool Local Court on Wednesday, while the 15-year-old will front a Children’s Court on Wednesday.
Police said a pistol, a baseball bat and other weapons were found inside the Casula property, where Chalhoub’s alleged captors tied his hands and feet together and assaulted him.
Forensics officers have also examined Chalhoub’s burnt-out ute found at Villawood, and a hatchback police believe was used to ferry him to the Casula property.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said detectives were having “great success” in its targeting of organised crime under Taskforce Falcon, established last year amid spiralling violence linked to the fracturing of the Alameddine network, as they confront a “different organised crime environment”.
“We’re seeing young people predominantly being contracted online to conduct very serious criminal activity, be it murder, be it kidnapping, be it drive-by shootings – as a police force, that’s why we’re making such a concerted effort,” Lanyon told 2GB on Wednesday morning.
“The fact that it’s so brazen is why we take it so seriously, why we have scaled up and why we have such a dedicated approach to organised crime.”
Younes, the cousin of the Alameddine’s Lebanon-based patriarch Rafat Alameddine, was the believed target of a foiled attack in western Sydney earlier this month, resulting in the arrests of three men and seizure of two firearms. Detectives have repeatedly warned Younes and Chalhoub of threats to their safety.
Police are investigating if the alleged kidnapping is related to the foiled plot to target Younes, or the ongoing conflicts involving the Alameddine network.
Former allies and emerging groups vying for control of Sydney’s underworld have targeted Alameddine members and associates for the past 18 months. Several senior members who have fled to the Middle East are alleged to be involved in the large-scale importation of cocaine and methamphetamine into Australia.
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Daniel Lo Surdo is a breaking news reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He previously helmed the national news live blog for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
