Crime figure Fadi Haddara has been shot in Melbourne’s western suburbs and is fighting for his life in hospital.
Haddara was shot in Marigold Ave in Altona North on Sunday night in a suspected gangland ambush.
It’s believed he was shot as he sat in a vehicle in the driveway of a property.
He was rushed to hospital and is being treated for life-threatening injuries.
A Victoria police statement issued at midnight said: “The 48-year-old man is believed to have been in a vehicle at the time of the shooting”.
“He has been taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries,” the statement said.
“A crime scene has been established and officers from the Major Crime Scene Unit will attend to process the scene in the morning.
“At this stage the incident is believed to be targeted.”
A crime scene remained in place on Monday morning, with Marigold Ave residents waking to a heavy police presence,
Steven Scott, who lives three doors away, said he heard multiple gunshots about 8pm on Sunday.
He came outside and saw Haddara being loaded into an ambulance, while some occupants of the house whose driveway he was shot in were yelling at police.
“Don’t come near us — leave me alone, leave us alone,” Mr Scott said he heard them yell.
Haddara is suspected of being a major figure in Victoria’s illicit tobacco trade.
Haddara was charged with firearms offences and affray by the Lunar taskforce in 2023.
Those counts were later dropped.
More than a decade ago, he was the target of a major organised crime operation called Skyborne.
That work, by the former Santiago taskforce, resulted in him being jailed for firearms and gun trafficking.
He has been taken on in recent years by feared exiled underworld identity Kazem Hamad.
Haddara’s businesses came under fire after Hamad made his move into the black market smoke sector.
His smoke shops, a restaurant and auto workshop were among businesses torched in attacks believed to be linked to the Hamad syndicate.
Haddara has been regarded as a formidable figure in Melbourne’s underworld for years.
Several associates of Haddara contacted by the Herald Sun on Sunday night were unaware the underworld figure had been shot.
But they predicted Victoria’s tobacco war would be at the centre of it.
Haddara had been a major player in the black market before Hamad was released from prison and deported to Iraq from where he led a firebombing and extortion campaign from late 2023 onwards.
Haddara was under threat while he was being pushed out of the cut throat black market.
“Those things never die,” one associate said.
Haddara’s businesses came under attack at the peak of the firebombings.
Hamad is now serving a life sentence in an Iraqi jail.
But sources say Hamad’s crew, known as the 313, remain active as his underlings seek to take control.
Emergency services were at the scene in Altona North on Sunday night where Haddara was shot.
It follows a number of other shooting incidents in Altona North this year.
On July 31, a house on Seventh Ave was peppered with bullets in a dead-of-night incident.
A tobacco shop off Millers Rd was shot at in April.
A month earlier, patrons at a cafe close to the tobacco shop ducked for cover when a gunman opened fire at them late in the evening.
Series of underworld shootings
The Haddara shooting is the latest in a succession of ambushes on big Melbourne underworld names in the past three years.
In August, 2023, tobacco trade players Mohammed “Afghan Ali” Keshtiar was fatally wounded in South Yarra.
Organised crime wild man Gavin Preston died a month later when a hit team pounced on him at a Keilor cafe.
In January last year, Hawre “Harry the Como” Sherwani was gunned down by killers who posed as police to pull his car over at Caroline Springs.
Hamad foe Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim was next to go, ambushed in an underground carpark at Preston.