According to underworld insiders, a mother shot dead in the backseat of a vehicle with her hairstylist companion in a brazen gangland execution in Sydney may have ‘knew too much.’
The gruesome executions of Lamet Fadlallah,48, and Amy Hazouri,39, have sent shockwaves through police ranks, raising concerns that underworld leaders may have ‘ripped up the regulations’ that traditionally meant women and children were off bounds.
On Saturday night, Fadlallah was sitting in the backseat of a silver Toyota 4WD outside her home on Hendy St, Panania in Sydney’s west, when a dozen bullets flew through the glass.
She is said to have been targeted because of her connections to organized crime after marrying two of the city’s most notorious drug kingpins, with one close to her revealing: ‘Lam was playing with the big guys and maybe knew too much.’
‘She was in in the thick of things. ‘She would carry the firearms for the lads, supply alibis when required, and associate with criminals right up until she was assassinated,’ an underworld source who knew Ms Fadlallah told the Daily Telegraph.
‘She believed she was intelligent, but this is the most dangerous Sydney has ever been.’ ‘Killing women publicly is on another level.’
Hazouri was seated next to her and is assumed to have been ‘collateral damage’ in the violent assault, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A 16-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man were also in the car, but fortunately evaded the hail of up to a dozen bullets by racing away and asking for aid.
With 14 execution-style murders throughout the city in the last two years-as several Middle Eastern criminal gangs and their bikie muscle fought for control of the lucrative drug trade on the heels of the epidemic-it was already thought that Sydney’s continuing gang war was out of control.
However, with the addition of victims 15 and 16 to the list of overworked investigators, authorities claim it’s apparent that underworld rulers have ‘ripped up the rules’ and that the streets have never been more violent.
Ms Fadlallah had spent her whole adult life surrounded by underworld people, married Shadi Derbas in her early twenties in the 1990s.
Derbas was a major member of the Telopea St Gang, named after the Punchbowl, Western Sydney street that came to fame as a hive of Middle Eastern gang activity between 1998 and 2000.
The legacy of that era gave birth to much of the street gang culture that is now wreaking havoc on Western Sydney streets.
Ms Fadlallah’s heart was recently won by 200kg standover guy Helal Safi, who was discovered dead in a Sydney flat in January 2021 after suffering a heart attack.
In2010, the imposing King’s Cross identity escaped a jailhouse assassination plot after being stabbed 42 times by rival gangsters.
His injuries were so serious that he slipped into a coma for five months, with investigators blaming his size for keeping him alive.
Surprisingly, her two crime lord loves switched partners, with Safi’s ex-girlfriend Hilal marrying Derbas.
Detectives are looking into any connections between the duo and other criminals Ms Fadlalla may have known, as well as if she possessed information that others wished to keep quiet. Ms Hazouri had no criminal connections and was a committed hairdresser who was well-known for her wedding looks.
She also has a TikTok profile where she posted videos of herself smiling and dancing to Middle Eastern music.
On Sunday, colleagues at her Bankstown salon tweeted a poignant tribute, saying they were’shattered’ to learn of her sudden demise.
‘We are heartbroken, our hearts are crushed, you left us much too soon,’ said the tribute.
‘May your memories last forever… till we meet again.’
On Sunday, NSW Police Detective Inspector Danny Doherty addressed the media, saying the shooting was ‘unprecedented’ because a ‘unwritten law’ among Sydney’s underworld that women and families were off-limits had been broken.
He stated that police would go to any length to apprehend the perpetrators.
‘This is a heinous attack on two women.’ They have been killed. It was a planned murder, an assassination, and it happened on a Sydney street,’ he said.
It is inadmissible by any standard. It is really unprecedented. And we are committed to finding the answers for the family.’
They do not discriminate on the basis of gender. Every rule book has been discarded, which is alarming.’