Just hours after police claimed they had arrested a key player in the tobacco and bar wars that have ravaged Melbourne, a message purported to be from his alleged superiors was released.
A mysterious underworld cartel dubbed “The Commission” issued a warning through crime news journalist Ryan Naumenko from Outlaw Media.
“Nothing stops and nothing changes,” the missive shared on his social media read.
“The beast has awoken … Tax continues to be paid and the boys will continue to burn.”
It’s unclear if The Commission had already made good on their word, but the attacks in Melbourne have continued.
Several suburban businesses went up in flames in overnight attacks in the days after alleged firebombing director Jesse Hadchiti, 20, was arrested on Tuesday.
On Wednesday night a house in Gladstone Park was shot at. A furniture store in Tullamarine was ram raided and set ablaze in the early hours of Thursday morning.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by the victims of the latest arson attacks.
Rohan Pike, a former Australian Federal Police officer and now investigative consultant, said such incidents showed how difficult it was for authorities to get a grip on the city’s ongoing organised crime crisis.
They could have been intended as a “statement that you can’t arrest your way out of it”,” he said.
“Victoria Police has made … so many arrests that it’s almost impossible to count them now, but perhaps between 300 and 500 arrests,” Mr Pike said.
“And despite all that we haven’t seen regular crime on the streets as we have like this ever. It’s the worst it’s ever been.”
Victoria Police allege Mr Hadchiti, 20, was the “main tasker” of The Commission in Australia and had been “front and centre” in serious crimes including firebombings and kidnappings.
Detective Inspector Graham Banks alleged Mr Hadchiti’s arrest was “the most consequential” made in three years of investigations into The Commission’s activities
“There is intelligence to suggest he is a very significant part of the organised crime group,” he said.
“He is most recently operated and tasked under an encrypted app handle by the name of CommBank … he came up with this handle based on the amount of wealth he was generating for the criminal organisation.
“I also understand he described himself as just an ordinary kid who goes to the gym and runs an empire from his home.
“Police believe the matters that he is currently being interviewed for are the tip of the iceberg.”
The 20-year-old has been charged with offences including aggravated home invasion, kidnapping, threats to kill, attempting to commit arson and recruiting a child for criminal activity, all of which were related to three separate alleged incidents in April.
He remains before the courts.
Insp Banks also publicly revealed the people police allege had been running The Commission from overseas and just how far its tentacles go in Australia.
What is The Commission?
A group calling itself The Commission first came to prominence in 2021, sending threatening messages to “main players” in Sydney’s drug supply network.
The group linked to the Comanchero bikie gang warned it would set the price of cocaine by force, saying it would bring a sense of “structure” to the black market.
Several figures previously connected to The Commission have been arrested or killed over the past five years, and NSW Police claimed in 2024 to have dismantled what remained of the so-called underworld “government, bank and economy”.
It appears that “The Commission” alleged to be behind the widescale extortion of Melbourne shops and Australia’s billion-dollar illegal tobacco trade is a different entity, going by Insp Bank’s media briefing last week.
He said illegal tobacco kingpin Kazem “Kaz” Hamad allegedly founded the network run from offshore, having been deported to Iraq in 2023 after his release from jail in Victoria.
Hamad was described as “one of the most dangerous men in the world” when arrested by authorities in Iraq earlier this year and his current whereabouts is unknown.
Police now allege one of his lieutenants is calling the shots from the Middle East.
Even though Hamad’s group and the network that first reared its head in 2021 are different, they employ similar tactics.
“They use threats and violence and so on in an increasing fashion to get their point across,” Mr Pike said.
“And obviously extortion is front and centre of the methodology.”
‘They’re into everything’
Victoria Police believe The Commission, or Hamad’s 313 syndicate, was “principally to blame” for the recent spate of firebombings targeting bars and restaurants in Melbourne.
It had previously been focused on controlling the illicit tobacco trade, burning shops that sold rival products or did not pay what has become known as the “Kaz tax”.
About 200 tobacconists have gone up in flames in the past few years in Victoria alone.
Insp Banks alleged the group also partnered with other crime networks and was behind the trafficking of “hundreds of kilos, tonnes” of cocaine.”
“They’re into every single thing you can think of. And then they think of something else,” he said.
The senior cop listed barber shops, acai spots and cafes as other businesses that have recently been targeted.
Last month signs appeared on stores in the city with the message “Contact the Commission on WhatsApp asap!” with a phone number listed.
“They are looking at tobacco shops as a method of making money,” Insp Banks said.
“They’re looking at licensed premises, whether they be run completely above board or otherwise, as a place that they can victimise to seek money from.
“And my concern is that’s just going to keep evolving … It’s concerning that it can be any type of business that sits on a high street.”
Mr Pike, who created the Australian Border Force’s Tobacco Strike Team, was also worried the extortion rackets would not stop at hospitality venues.
He said organised crime was “awash with cash” thanks to illegal tobacco and were “growing stronger every day”.
“And if they choose to they could just start extorting any retail business – and that’s just mayhem,” he said.
“So that’s really scary, that sort of prospect. But that’s the way it’s heading at the moment.
“It’s mafia like behaviour.”
An ‘organism constantly changing’
The scale of The Commission’s alleged operation was revealed when Insp Banks told media Mr Hadchiti allegedly boasted of having 2000 people to call on in Australia.
“I personally believe that’s an elevated number, but it’s well within the realms of possibility that it’s literally hundreds,” he said.
He said the group was an “organism constantly changing” that worked with youth gangs and other crime networks.
Insp Banks spoke about the “policy” issues facing police trying to combat offshore criminals, including the inability to issue Interpol red notices for wanted people due to concerns over death penalties in some countries criminals are suspected of holing up in.
“I don’t think anyone’s or not many people … have talked about what that does as a consequence of that decision going forward,” he said.
“But we certainly need to make it the most hostile environment we can onshore and offshore.”
Mr Pike said one of the biggest problems for law enforcement was the laws around tobacco products that have led to the black market becoming so lucrative.
He said the violence seen in Melbourne and elsewhere was a “symptom” of these policies, which had been “a gift to organised crime”.
“Despite Kaz being locked up, despite (alleged associate Ahmed) Al Hamzah being locked up, the violence is stronger, more prevalent than ever,” he said.
“The availability of the illicit product on the street is the same as ever, if not more.”
‘Pay with blood’
Gruesome footage of an apparent gangland hostage situation credited to The Commission was obtained by Outlaw Media earlier this month.
In the video a man flanked by two black-clad guards had a gun pressed against his wounded head as he recited a warning purportedly from the crime network.
“This is The Commission,” he said.
“If you don’t obey the law you’ll be dragged out of the house and you’ll pay by blood.”
News.com.au understands the incident took place in Victoria but it is unclear when.
It came days after The Commission warned the underworld it wanted cocaine prices to rise, citing the seizure of 2.7 tonnes of the drug in Sydney.
“Everyone needs to limit the supply for the next 2-3 weeks … No reason to sell ourselves short,” the message read.
“Any stamps being sold cheap will be targeted.”
Mr Pike believed the gangland violence would not stop any time soon, despite last week’s breakthrough arrest.
“This just provides an opportunity for someone in the lower ranks to move up the chain of command,” he said.
“There’s also a possibility that rival syndicates might use this as an opportunity to fill a power vacuum and try to make a mark on the industry.
“Perhaps they’ve been overridden previously by Kaz’s group and they might see this as a weakness and that they it’s time for them to put their hand up again.”
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