Mourners farewell Lorenzo Lemalu at Lakemba Mosque a day after shots fired at wrong funeral venue
Dozens of people have gathered to farewell Lorenzo Lemalu at a funeral held at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque. (ABC News)
In short:
Dozens of mourners have turned out to farewell Sydney crime boss Lorenzo Lemalu at a funeral held at Lakemba Mosque, in Sydney's western suburbs.
The procession was held just 24 hours after police responded to reports of a gunman firing shots into another venue that was advertised as the location of Lemalu’s funeral.
Lemalu's death has heightened gangland tensions in Sydney, with police sources saying they are braced for reprisal attacks.
Dozens of mourners have turned out to farewell Sydney crime boss Lorenzo Lemalu just 24 hours after a gunman targeted the wrong venue for his funeral.
Police responded to reports shots had been fired into Diamond Venues in Punchbowl at about 2:30pm yesterday.
Lorenzo Lemalu was fatally shot in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on May 2. (Supplied)
Video later shared on a gangland social media page showed a gunman firing multiple shots from the rear window of a car into the property.
The venue had been advertised as the location of Lemalu’s funeral before it was changed to Lakemba Mosque today.
Lemalu died in a hail of bullets in Ho Chi Minh City on May 21 in an attack that two Samoan men have since confessed on Vietnamese TV to committing.
Police believe Lemalu was the head of the “Coconut Cartel”, a gang involved in tit-for-tat shootings with the Alameddine crime family and whose name comes from a historic slur against Pasifika people.
Mourners gather at the funeral of Lorenzo Lemalu (ABC News)
Lorenzo Lemalu's hearse leaving Lakemba mosque on Sunday. (ABC News: Anton Rose)
His death has heightened gangland tensions in Sydney, with police sources telling the ABC they were bracing for reprisal attacks in the city after Lemalu’s death in Vietnam.
Lemalu’s remains were returned to his family this week and a small crowd attended Lakemba Mosque today under a heavy police presence.
Several police vehicles could be seen patrolling the street outside the mosque as mourners quietly came and went from the farewell, many hiding their faces from nearby media.