How teens are recruited as players in Sydney's gangland war

The phone buzzes with a job offer in an encrypted group chat full of young men.

But it's not about repainting a house or mowing lawns, the person on the other end is looking for a hit-man.

Police say they are now grappling with guns for hire in Sydney being recruited online getting younger and younger.

Often, the teens do not know who is making the offer on behalf of the organised crime group paying them to shoot, kidnap and firebomb the properties of underworld rivals.

Other jobs include stealing a potential getaway car and staging it in a nearby location for the gunmen to make their escape from the scene.

In the most recent iteration of the city's gangland war, those recruited by warring crime gangs "for literally nothing" are juveniles lured by meagre sums of money, one police source noted.

Kids could face gangland reprisals

In the most recent attempt to take out an underworld figure on Monday in Auburn, police suspect the gunmen hired to shoot Samimjan Azari were recruited in a similar method.

But as Taskforce Falcon Commander Jason Box said after a 16-year-old was charged with torching a barbershop in Merrylands, the consequences for those involved can go beyond the court system.

"You're associating with serious organised crime networks and committing offences against them," Superintendent Box said.

"The repercussions for their actions in the courts is one consideration, but there's also repercussions from the persons they're targeting from the organised crime networks.

Superintendent Box said the owner of the torched barbershop has links to the Alameddine crime family, whose internal feud, police believe, is behind an explosion in underworld violence.

The Alameddines are a Western Sydney family who police allege are one of the biggest crime gangs currently involved in the city's lucrative drug trade.

Taskforce Falcon, headed up by Superintendent Box, was established last month after the internal feud saw Dawood Zakaria killed while sitting at traffic lights in Granville.

Mr Zakaria was a member of the splintering Alameddine clan, though the hitmen's target was believed to be Samimjan Azari, who survived the attack in the back seat.

Mr Azari this week survived the brazen fourth attempt to kill him this year when masked gunmen stormed the Auburn kebab shop he was in about 1pm on Monday.

A new marketplace

Police believe those responsible for picking up the offers to steal getaway cars and commit arson attacks are being recruited on encrypted group chats like Signal in a new marketplace for criminals for hire.

"We believe [the recruitment] is from social media, encrypted devices and word of mouth," Superintendent Box said after they charged the teenager over the Merrylands firebombing.

One day after forming on May 27, Taskforce Falcon charged another 16-year-old boy over allegedly staging a stolen "kill car" with jerry can of fuel, a balaclava and two guns inside.

The items are consistent with getaway cars often found burnt-out in the aftermath of the dozens of underworld killings Sydney has experienced since 2020.

A few days later a 17-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were charged with stealing a car in Lidcombe.

Jerry cans of fuel were found inside.

Later that same day they also arrested another 15-year-old boy who they allege fled the scene after the stolen car, a Toyota HiLux, was stopped during a random patrol.

In the botched attempt to shoot alleged Alameddine crime boss Ali Elmoubayed at his Merrylands home on June 12 police are investigating what role two teens may have had.

The pair, both 17, were arrested after allegedly driving a stolen Ford Territory erratically in Greystanes in the aftermath of the shooting.

Inside police said they located balaclavas, cans of fuel, bleach and knives.

One of the teenagers — believed to have been a passenger in the alleged stolen vehicle — pleaded not guilty when he appeared in court and was granted conditional bail.

His lawyer told the court it was the first court matter on his record and his first interaction with police.

The lawyer expressed "extreme concerns" about the prosecution case against him, including that there was no assertion he was driving the car, or that the knife was his.

All the teenagers who have been charged by Taskforce Falcon remain before the Childrens Court.

Three adults have been charged over the shooting on Mr Elmoubayed's home, which forced him to leave over fears for his life.

'The don't give a rat's arse'

Former NSW Police officer Peter Moroney spent 18 years on the force, for most of those years he was chasing the worst of the worst.

Mr Moroney could see similarities in how the teens are being lured into the underworld with his days tracking terrorists and how they recruited young extremists.

"In terms of how [the children] are getting involved a lot of the time in disadvantaged areas when they're coming from broken homes they're looking for a sense of belonging," he said.

"And these gangs offer that. But if a couple of kids get caught in the crossfire they don't give a rat's arse.

"If they get a cleanskin to do it with no criminal record it's less likely to tie back to them.

"But you have seen how their work is sloppy, back in the day they would have paid a lot of money, flown a hitman in and [the target] would be dead by now."