It was only a matter of time before one of the myriad of Sydney’s gangsters hiding overseas would die in a hail of bullets.

There are dozens of major crime figures – many with contracts on their head – who live in Dubai, Malaysia, Lebanon and parts of Southeast Asia, believing they are safer there from being “knocked’’ or arrested than if they were back home in Sydney.

Well, the bad guys better think again, after the execution of the senior leader of the so-called Coconut Cartel, Lorenzo Lemalu, at a seafood restaurant in Vietnam overnight.

The warning signs that it was coming were there when it was rumoured two gunmen were waiting for Mohammed “little Crazy’’ Hamzy outside a restaurant in Malaysia last year, but he gave them slip and went out a rear exit.

In another incident, Bilal Haoucher pulled a gun on a Sydney gangster in Lebanon.

Lorenzo Lemalu at a high-end restaurant in Dubai. Picture: Supplied

For the past 12 months a self-proclaimed crime syndicate called the Coconut Cartel has been targeting Alameddine crime network businesses, family homes and associates with drive-by shootings and firebombings, releasing videos and posts on social media boasting they were coming for them.

There seemed to be little return fire from the notorious crime family until now.

The Alameddine network does its bragging in bodies.

Now they cops suspect they have sent another message: It doesn’t matter where you are; we will get you.

Wayne Schneider was killed in Thailand in 2015. Picture Supplied

John Macris was killed in Greece in 2018. Picture: Supplied

Some in the underworld are saying that Lemalu was hit because he ripped off some Albanian drug dealers, or he was with Asians who were the real target … no one in Sydney, including the cops, believes that.

But there are people in underworld not convinced it’s was the Alameddines and that Lemalu was with a local crime figure who was the target.

Old hardheads around southwest Sydney and NSW cops could sense it. The Alameddine organised crime network was quiet – too quiet – but even the cops and crooks who have been around a long time were surprised by the killing overseas.

Video of the aftermath of the shooting of Lorenzo Lemalu in Vietnam.

There was a time where Aussie fugitives felt untouchable from the long arm of the law or an assassin’s bullet if they were overseas, but the world is shrinking and so are the hiding places.

There are at least five Sydney crims currently overseas who have bounties on their head back in Sydney who may now be feeling a little nervous.

Hells Angel bikie Wayne Schneider was beaten to death by a fellow Sydney criminal Antonio Bagnato and others in Thailand in 2015, but that was more an accident than a contract killing.

Likewise, high-flying Sydney gangster John Macris was spectacularly executed outside his Athens mansion in 2018, but he had run foul of the local mafia and his killing had nothing to do with his old enemies back home – of which there were plenty.

Now the question is: who is next?

SOURCE: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-nsw/no-safe-havens-sydney-gangsters-overseas-on-notice-after-lemalu-shooting/news-story/67fb9f9e8b40fad07cf7a900ca15acac