Sydney rapper’s bodyguard snatched from family home in alleged late-night abduction

The bodyguard of Sydney rapper Ay Huncho was abducted at gunpoint and beaten by a group of masked men in the latest targeted attack on the Alameddine crime family.

The alleged kidnapping of Emilio Chalhoub from his family’s Guildford home on Monday night comes amid sustained assaults on the Alameddine network by underworld rivals staking their claim for control of the city’s illicit drug trade.

Chalhoub was recovered from a Casula home about 12.30am on Tuesday – an hour after he was bundled into his own car. Police found him with facial injuries shortly before arresting five people nearby who had allegedly fled the Casula property as officers surrounded it.

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. Four men aged in their 20s and a 17-year-old boy are expected to be charged with Chalhoub’s kidnapping and other related offences on Tuesday afternoon.

Last year, Chalhoub was the intended target of an attack at his family’s 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.

Anti-gang detectives allege Ay Huncho, whose legal name is Ali Younes, is a senior member of the Alameddine organised crime network. He is the cousin of the Alameddine family’s Lebanon-based patriarch, Rafat Alameddine.

Police believe Younes was the target of a foiled attack in western Sydney earlier this month. Three men were arrested and two firearms were seized after the trio led police on a pursuit in an allegedly stolen Audi SUV. Detectives have repeatedly warned Younes and Chalhoub of threats to their safety.

Forensics officers have examined Chalhoub’s burnt-out car found at Villawood, and another vehicle police believe was used to ferry him to the Casula property. Taskforce Falcon, which was established last year amid spiralling violence linked to the Alameddine network’s fracturing and comprising almost 150 police officers, has taken charge of the kidnapping investigation. Detectives are investigating if the alleged kidnapping is related to the foiled plot to target Younes, or the ongoing conflicts involving the Alameddine network.

“Anyone that’s affiliated with high-level organised crime entities or networks is always a potential target,” Detective Superintendent Jason Box, the commander of Taskforce Falcon, said.

Footage captured overnight shows heavily armed members of NSW Police tactical operations unit storming the Casula home where Chalhoub was found. Chalhoub’s alleged kidnappers were tracked to the property by a police helicopter after his father reported the abduction to police. The chopper had been circling the western suburbs as part of an increased law enforcement presence in the area amid heightened violence.

Members and associates of the Alameddine network for the past 18 months have been the targets of a sustained campaign from former allies and emerging groups vying for control of Sydney’s underworld.

Rivals targeting the Alameddine network have banded together to form several groups, which regularly rebrand and publicise their attacks, in an effort to depose what remains of the family. Several senior network members based in the Middle East, including Rafat Alameddine, are alleged to be involved in the large-scale importation of cocaine and methamphetamine into Australia.

On Saturday morning, Rafat Alameddine’s empty Merrylands home was targeted in a drive-by shooting. Businesses linked to his brother-in-law, Asaad Alahmad, have been targeted. Alahmad has been jailed for his involvement in the Alameddine network’s drug-trafficking arm called “Ready 4 War”.

Groups calling themselves the “Lone Wolves” and the “OC Jail Gang” have claimed credit for the attacks. The groups are believed to be aligned with the self-proclaimed Coconut Cartel, which earlier this year declared war on the Alameddine family. The Coconut Cartel comprises several former Alameddine associates.

“There’s always a possibility that they change names and change teams,” Box said at a press conference on Saturday.

In footage captured during the firebombing of a Wetherill Park towing business linked to the Alameddine family last week, the Lone Wolves promised further “coordinated strikes”.

“It is the end of the road for your organisation with careful and calculated collaberations [sic] amongst enemies you have made over the years,” the group wrote in a video caption.

Officers working under Taskforce Falcon have made more than 400 arrests and laid more than 4000 charges since last May.

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