![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/561b5cfbcbe63c7aeb3c5ee6cb7b4109.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nA man and a 15-year-old boy have been charged over the shooting of former NRL winger Matt Utai in Sydney’s west.<\/p>\n
Mr Utai, who played for the Tigers and Bulldogs, was shot outside a home in Greenacre on Tuesday by the occupants of an SUV, before they fled the scene.<\/p>\n
The 44-year-old was taken to hospital in a serious condition following treatment at the scene by paramedics after being shot in the leg and shoulder.<\/p>\n
Police said an SUV was found on fire a short time later on Samuel Street in Wiley Park.<\/p>\n
Three men and a teenager were earlier this week charged over a spate of shootings and firebombings connected to rising tensions in Sydney’s underworld.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A man and a 15-year-old boy have been charged over the shooting of Matt Utai. (Supplied: NSW Police)<\/p>\n
Police believe conflict between the once-powerful Alameddine crime family and a group dubbed the ‘Coconut Cartel’ culminated in the shooting of Mr Utai on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Police suspect the shooting of Mr Utai 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
About 6:50pm on Friday, officers arrested the 25-year-old in Marsden Park.<\/p>\n
A short time later the 15-year-old boy was arrested in Emerton.<\/p>\n
Police allege the two were the gunmen responsible for the attack on Matt Utai.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771628594_586_f248dc8c1f765d17845e5e43b9e076c3.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Three men and a teenager were arrested on Thursday, including a 19-year-old in Guildford. (Supplied: ABC News)<\/p>\n
Both were taken to Mt Druitt Police Station, where they were charged with shooting with intent to murder and participating in a criminal group contributing to criminal activity.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old was also charged with possessing a prohibited drug.<\/p>\n
The man will appear before a bail court and the teen will appear before a children’s court today.<\/p>\n
Police previously described the Coconut Cartel as a “crime for hire group” who had been posting about their attacks on members of the Alameddines online since December.<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man and a 15-year-old boy have been charged over the shooting of former NRL winger Matt Utai…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":594990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[8339,4740,12784,256840,260065,50,260068,9309,260067,260066],"class_list":["post-604469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-arson","tag-australia","tag-gangs","tag-greenacre","tag-matt-utai-shooting","tag-news","tag-nrl-star-shot","tag-nsw-police","tag-raptor-squad","tag-sydney-gangland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116105459542868736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604469","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=604469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}