Updated ,first published
A gunman armed with a heavy military weapon has fired multiple shots at a Sydney venue where a funeral had been planned for a fallen gangland boss who was shot dead in Vietnam two weeks ago.
Lorenzo Lemalu, one of the so-called Coconut Cartel’s senior members, was shot dead outside a Ho Chi Minh City restaurant last month.
The 24-year-old was suspected of directing the so-called Coconut Cartel in its ongoing war against former allies, the Alameddine crime family.
Lemalu’s family were invited for a service at Diamond Venues in Punchbowl, where the shooting occurred, on Saturday, but the family had cancelled the event and the venue was largely empty when the shots were fired.
Dramatic video footage uploaded to SCN Worldstar – an independent media outlet used by members of Sydney’s underworld to share footage of targeted attacks – showed a hooded gunman in the rear seat of a car before he winds down the window.
The gunman, who is being filmed by a person in the front seat, fires dozens of shots in a few seconds using what appears to be an AK-47-style machinegun, the footage shows.
Before the shots are fired, one person in the car can be heard saying: “The window, cuz.”
A voice can also be heard to remark: “Are ya done? Let’s f—ing go, lad,” before the car pulls away.
The venue was almost empty – it’s believed there was only one person in an inside office, away from the gunfire.
Police said there were no reported injuries.
Officers were called to the events venue at the corner of Punchbowl and Canterbury roads following reports of a shooting shortly after 2pm.
They said several shots were fired at the site from an unknown SUV before it was driven away.
Shortly after, police said officers were called to Gillian Place, also in Punchbowl, where they found an abandoned car on fire. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, but the vehicle was badly damaged.
Police believe the two incidents are linked. They have set up crime scenes at both locations.
Lemalu has another funeral event, at Lakemba Mosque, scheduled for Sunday.
Vietnamese police investigating Lemalu’s assassination arrested two Samoan men, Joseph Vaa and Steve Tofa, who told authorities they had been hired by an overseas employer to ambush Lemalu and his associate Sam Sauni, who survived the attack.
Days later, NSW Police dismantled what they said was the Australian operation of the so-called Coconut Cartel when they arrested several alleged cartel associates police say have helped the group import large amounts of illicit drugs into Australia.
Police say the cartel’s alleged onshore leader, Henry Kupa, 27, has facilitated several large-scale drug importations under the direction of fugitive gang leader Anthony Pele. Pele remains wanted by police on several outstanding warrants and is believed to have been orchestrating the cartel’s operations and its conflict with the Alameddine family from abroad.
The Coconut Cartel’s other alleged senior figure in exile, Iziah Utai, is also wanted for murder and is believed to have fled Australia.
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 his son.
The shooting at Punchbowl, as with the shooting of Utai, shows those targeting the Coconut Cartel consider the wider families to be viable targets.
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