Seb Costello

And number five was this link that's being explored along with the Australian Federal Police, and that is that Middle Eastern crime gangs with bosses based in Iraq are pulling the strings on this.

Yeah, I mean, there is illegal alcohol being, or untaxed alcohol, being sold at a large amount of bottle shops.

So it only stands to reason that it's made its way into the venues too.

I've spoken to at least one former club owner.

He actually owned one of the clubs that was firebombed, who said they had recently had a fairly rough-looking vodka salesman, I'll say in quotation marks, come in and try and push cheap liquor.

So that is going on.

To the extent to which it's part of the campaign of violence, the hospitality terrorism, as it's called, you know, that's still a bit unclear.

Yeah, there's a few different names to mention there.

The first is Kaz Hamad, and Kaz is a crime gang leader who was very much into the sale of illicit tobacco in Melbourne.

A man in exile, but according to police, still a kingpin in Melbourne's underworld.

You know, he escaped to the Middle East, but, you know, he's pulled out something like a billion dollars in the sale of illegal or untaxed tobacco.

So, you know, before we had nightclubs being bombed, it was smoke shops, and he was thought to be behind that.

From 2023, Qasem Hamad is suspected of orchestrating a series of tobacco store firebombings.

He also allegedly ordered a botched attack on a home in...

in which an innocent resident was killed.

He's currently in custody in Iraq, but he's detained by Iraqi officials.

He has a lieutenant, you know, somebody who he's quite close to, nicknamed The Ghost, and that person was involved in a number of high-profile crimes.

before they fled to the Middle East.

You know, the ghost was one of the shooters who, you know, attempted to assassinate former boxer Sam the Punisher.

And the Punisher survived that attempt on his life only to be shot dead sometime later.