- Police haul of 27 firearms traced back to two high-profile gangland murders
- Investigators said it shows how intertwined guns are among underworld figures
- Two of the weapons were used in the brutal killing of Pasquale Barbaro, 35
- The hit was carried out by Abuzar Sultani’s ‘black-ops’ murder squad in Sydney
- Three other guns were linked to the unsolved murder of a Hells Angels enforcer
The intertwined history of some of Australia’s most high-profile gangland murders was revealed in secret when police seized a stockpile of 27 guns from the boot of a car at an industrial unit four years ago.
Three of the guns were traced back to the ruthless unsolved execution of Hells Angels enforcer Kemel ‘Blackie’ Barakat, 29, in 2017, while two others were linked to the cold-blooded killing of Calabrian crime family gangster Pasquale Barbaro, 35.
Barbaro’s hit was carried out by the murder-for-hire boss Abuzar Sultani 32, who studied accounting at Sydney‘s Macquarie University in the day and ran what police called a ‘black-ops killing squad’ by night.
Police do not believe his crew of killers known as the ‘the Afghanis’ or ‘Ab’s Boys’ were responsible for gunning down Barakat and that both cases are unrelated.
Two guns found in the haul were linked to the cold-blooded killing of Calabrian crime family gangster Pasquale Barbaro, 35 (pictured)
Abuzar Sultani 32 (pictured), studied accounting at Sydney’s Macquarie University in the day and ran a ‘black-ops killing squad’ by night
Details about the weapons haul in August 2017 was kept hidden under a court suppression order and only revealed at the trial of Siar Munshizada, 33, this month, when the triggerman was given three life sentences for the brutal murders of Barbaro, Rebels bikie Michael ‘Ruthless’ Davey and drug dealer Mehmet Yilmaz.
Justice Des Fagan said the people in possession of the firearms had ‘no connection’ with the offenders so far as appears from the evidence before the court.
A senior NSW police officer said the bizarre realisation shows how guns are often shared between underworld figures.
‘The fact the guns involved in two murders were found among one batch seized from other criminals just shows how guns are passed around among themselves,’ the officer told the Daily Telegraph.
‘Guns are currency and the crims offloading them don’t care if someone is caught with them. They could find themselves a suspect in murders or crimes they weren’t involved in.’
Sultani earlier this year was also slapped with three life sentences, while two other members of his hit squad Joshua Baines, 29 and Mirwais Danishayar, 28, received 15 and 36 years respectively.
Details about the weapons haul in August 2017 was kept hidden under a court suppression order and only revealed at the trial of Siar Munshizada, 33 (pictured), this month
Ballistics experts matched a 9mm calibre Beretta semi-automatic pistol (left) found in the back of the boot at Glendenning in Western Sydney to the Barbaro killing, along with a .45 calibre Norinco semi-automatic (right)
Ballistics experts matched a 9mm calibre Beretta semi-automatic pistol found in the back of the boot at Glendenning in Western Sydney to the Barbaro killing, along with a .45 calibre Norinco semi-automatic.
Barbaro, whose bloody death was featured on the Channel Seven miniseries Australian Gangster, was killed in a hail of bullets outside a home in Sydney’s Earlwood in November 2016.
Police firearms examinations also determined three other guns in the haul were used to kill bikie enforcer Barakat.
The Sydney underworld figure was in bed with a woman he ‘may have been having an affair with’ when assassins burst into his unit and executed him in a hail of bullets, a court heard.
Slain Sydney crime figure Kemel ‘Blackie’ Barakat is pictured with his wife, who Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to name
Barakat was murdered by masked assailants as he slept alongside Fatima Hage at his unit in Mortlake, in the city’s south, about 2.30am on March 10, 2017.
His one-time friend, Ahmed Jaghbir, 31, was jailed for 11 years after he supplied hitmen with a key but the four gunmen have never been caught.
Sultani has also never revealed to police who hired him to carry out the three murders he was convicted for.
‘They carried out killings as an enterprise and it took a very highly skilled and adept set of investigators to outsmart them,’ NSW Police homicide squad commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty told the Sydney Morning Herald.
