{"id":602559,"date":"2026-02-20T03:56:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T03:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/602559\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T03:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T03:56:19","slug":"three-men-one-teen-charged-over-gangland-attacks-linked-to-coconut-cartel-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/602559\/","title":{"rendered":"Three men, one teen charged over gangland attacks linked to ‘Coconut Cartel’ conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have issued a strong message to underworld figures masterminding violence in Sydney, warning they “don’t remain out of our reach forever”.<\/p>\n

It comes as three men and a teenager were charged over a spate of shootings and firebombings connected to rising tensions in the city’s underworld.<\/p>\n

Police believe conflict between the once-powerful Alameddine crime family and a group dubbed the ‘Coconut Cartel’ culminated in the shooting of Matt Utai on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The former NRL winger was shot leaving a home in Greenacre just after 6am in what police suspect was an attack targeting his son Iziah Utai.<\/p>\n

Iziah Utai, believed to be overseas, is a former associate of the Alameddine network and police this week said they were investigating his links to the Coconut Cartel.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

Former Bulldogs and Tigers winger, Matt Utai, who was shot in Greenacre this week. (AAP Image\/Action Photographics, Robb Cox)<\/p>\n

A day after the shooting, a video showed a man firing shots into a St Clair home and saying: “Utai’s family in-law \u2026 f*** you and the Coconut Cartel”.<\/p>\n

Shortly after another video showed Iziah Utai’s Guildford West home being set alight, with a voice in the background saying: “This is the start of the destruction brother.”<\/p>\n

The same property was shot at in December and in May last year a barbershop owned by Iziah Utai was firebombed two nights in a row.<\/p>\n

Police previously described the Coconut Cartel as a “crime for hire group” who had been posting their attacks on members of the Alameddines online since December.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Superintendent Abdy described the Coconut Cartel as a “crime for hire” group responible for offences committed across Sydney. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

On Friday, Raptor Squad’s Superintendent Brad Abdy said police were concerned the overseas masterminds of the tit-for-tat violence were orchestrating attacks from the safety of their hideouts.<\/p>\n

“Yes we are concerned about that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That people from overseas are able to effectively task people in Sydney to commit crimes on their behalf while they remain basically tucked away free from reach at this stage.<\/p>\n

“But that reach doesn’t remain free. If we can identify them then there are processes to have them arrested and returned to this country.”<\/p>\n

Identifying who was pulling the strings overseas, Superintendent Abdy said, was a “primary goal” of investigators.<\/p>\n

“They don’t remain out of our reach forever,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But for the young people that are here I’d certainly discourage them from committing these offences for these people offshore because they’re simply too afraid to come to Australia and New South Wales to commit crime.<\/p>\n

“They’re using young people to commit crime on their behalf, promising them riches they’ll never, ever get.”<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Raptor Squad’s Strike Force Halesowen conducted several raids across Western Sydney in relation to the attacks.<\/p>\n

In Guildford, a 19-year-old man was arrested and charged with a series of offences after police claim he allegedly picked up the gunman who shot Matt Utai.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The four men were arrested on Thursday, including a 19-year-old in Guildford. (Supplied: ABC News)<\/p>\n

A 16-year-old boy, who police allege handled the gun used to shoot the 44-year-old Bulldogs premiership winner, was arrested and charged in Auburn.<\/p>\n

The pair will front the Parramatta Local Court and the Childrens Court on Friday.<\/p>\n

An 18-year-old and a 19-year-old were also charged with the firebombing on Iziah Utai’s home in Guildford West this week.<\/p>\n

The younger man was granted bail to face Bankstown Local Court in March while the 19-year-old was also charged with drug supply offences to appear in the same court on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have issued a strong message to underworld figures masterminding violence in Sydney, warning they “don’t remain out…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":602560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[259377,259373,259374,4740,259372,259375,259376,259370,50,76885,7207,101,259371],"class_list":["post-602559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-raptor-squad-superintendent-brad-abdy","tag-coconut-cartel","tag-alameddine-crime-family","tag-australia","tag-greenacre-shooting","tag-iziah-utai","tag-iziah-utais-guildford-west-home","tag-matt-utai","tag-news","tag-nrl","tag-police","tag-shooting","tag-shooting-of-former-nrl-player-matt-utai"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116100949074199796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}