A senior member of the so-called Coconut Cartel, a gang locked in a months-long feud with the notorious Alameddine crime family, has been shot dead in Vietnam.

Gangland police are investigating whether the shooting of Lorenzo Laemalu in Ho Chi Minh City overnight is linked to the cartel’s ongoing conflict with the Alameddine network, which has been the target of sustained attacks from the cartel and other rival groups vying for control of Sydney’s underworld.

Police believe Laemalu, 24, is one of several senior Coconut Cartel members who have fled Australia and have been directing the group’s activities from South-East Asia. Detectives are exploring the possibility that Laemalu’s death is linked to the cartel’s activities abroad. A second cartel member is believed to have been shot in the attack.

Images published by SCN Worldstar, an independent media outlet used by members of Sydney’s underworld to share footage of targeted attacks, show two men lying bloodied on the floor of what appears to be a Ho Chi Minh City restaurant in the aftermath of the shooting.

Messages received by SCN Worldstar and purportedly sent by members of the Alameddine network suggest they have claimed credit for the killing.

“That’s what happens when Coconuts try (and) fight the people that made them,” one message said, according to SCN Worldstar.

The Coconut Cartel’s other alleged ringleaders, Anthony Pele and Iziah Utai, are also believed to have fled Australia and are based in the region. Pele remains wanted by NSW Police on several outstanding warrants.

Utai left Australia shortly after underworld figure Dawood Zakaria, the older brother of the Alameddine network’s former second-in-command, Masood Zakaria, was killed in a botched assassination attempt on one of his associates last May. A warrant for Iziah Utai’s arrest in relation to Dawood Zakaria’s murder has been issued.

Utai’s father, retired NRL star Matt Utai, was seriously injured in a shooting outside his Greenacre home in February during a series of attacks that detectives believe were targeting the 2004 premiership winner’s son.

Laemalu is a former ally of rapper Ay Huncho, whose legal name is Ali Younes. Younes is alleged to be a senior member of the Alameddine network and is a cousin of the family’s fugitive patriarch, Rafat Alameddine, who remains wanted by NSW Police over an alleged conspiracy to murder gangland rival Ibrahem Hamze. Alameddine has been based in Lebanon since leaving Australia in late 2022 amid increased police scrutiny.

Laemalu was previously linked to street gang Proper 60, a Merrylands-based group associated with the Alameddine crime family, and had the group’s name tattooed across his stomach.

Sydney rapper Nasa Nova, whose legal name is Manasa Nayacakalou, posted an image on Friday morning to social media of he and Laemalu leaving Wollongong Local Court together in 2022.

Laemalu and Nayacakalou were each sentenced to supervision orders on affray charges in February 2022. Both have appeared in Younes’ music videos.

The Coconut Cartel in January declared war on the Alameddine network, vowing to eradicate what remained of the Merrylands clan’s local operations.

The cartel, along with other groups comprising defected former Alameddine network members and allies, has claimed credit for several attacks on the family since as they work to wrest control of Sydney’s illicit drug market.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the agency is working with Vietnamese authorities to confirm Laemalu’s death.