A cocaine kingpin was shot dead in his car just days after launching a gemstone business – as it’s revealed security had been beefed up at his wife’s bush property just last week.
Alen Moradian – once described as Australia’s answer to fictional drug lord Tony Soprano – was shot dead in his car in an underground car park in Bondi Junction, in Sydney‘s east, about 8.30am on Tuesday.
Police said Moradian, who is linked to the Comanchero bikie gang and is said to have a key role in the city’s cocaine network, had a ‘big target on his back’ and was targeted by up to two hitmen, one of whom managed to set a getaway car on fire.
He was killed on his estranged wife’s Natasha’s 51st birthday.
Documents obtained by Daily Mail Australia revealed Moradian last Friday set up a new company, Brilliant Gems Australia Pty Ltd, with the convicted drug dealer listing himself as the director, secretary and sole shareholder of the business.
The principal place of residence was listed as his wife’s $2.35million property in Kurrajong, at the base of the NSW Blue Mountains.
Neighbours reported seeing Mrs Moradian leaving her home in a black sedan about 90 minutes after her husband was gunned down.
Mrs Moradian appears to have been friends with the late Lametta Fadlallah – who was murdered last August alongside her friend Amy Hazouri in the back of a car after a $500,000 bounty was placed on her head.
Meanwhile, neighbours revealed an electric fence was erected around the Kurrajong property in the past few days.
Natasha Moradian – the estranged wife of the late Alen Moradian – is pictured with slain ‘gangster mum’ Lametta Fadlallah
A large electric fence was erected around Mrs Moradian’s property in the past week, neighbours told Daily Mail Australia
Security at the bush property was beefed up ahead of Alen Moradian’s shooting death
‘The black fence only went up a week or so ago,’ said a neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous.
‘The construction was taking place for three weeks. Lots of people were there digging.
‘The silver [electric] fence was finished just before that – about a month ago. Before, it was only a small old wooden fence that you could step over.
‘We always see white vans going to and from the property, but we’ve never seen who lives there.’
Staff at Mrs Moradian’s organic store at Richmond confirmed she had a rostered day off.
Police have swarmed Bondi Junction in Sydney’s east after a man was shot while sitting in his car in what is a suspected gangland hit
The Sydney crime figure, 48, who has yet to be formally identified by police, was shot dead in a brazen daylight ambush next door to Bondi Junction’s Holiday Inn hotel on Spring Street just before 8.30am on Tuesday.
Moradian, who once had the ceiling of his suburban home painted like the Sistine Chapel, is understood to have been a member of the Commission, an underworld network linked to the Comanchero which controls the city’s drug trade.
A police source at the scene confirmed the man had died. A burnt out car was found shortly after the shooting on Cook Lane in Zetland.
Forensic officers were also seen examining a luxury Porsche on James St about a kilometre away from where the shots were fired. Police are investigating whether getaway drivers attempted to set that car alight also, but failed.
Police are searching for two gunmen who remain at large.
It is understood the man was gunned down near the busy shopping precinct just before 8.30am on Tuesday
Alen Moradian who had gangland links including to the Comanchero bikies (pictured) has been executed
The shots are understood to have been fired in an apartment building carpark next to the Holiday Inn with Spring St blocked off by police tape with the public warned to stay away from the area
Firefighters attending the scene of another burnt out car in Zetland on Tuesday morning
NSW Police have confirmed an operation is underway ‘following reports of shots fired’ and warned people to avoid the area.
Spring St and Denison St in Bondi Junction have been blocked off by police and closed to all traffic, pedestrians and cyclists.
Locals are being advised to avoid the area.
Multiple police cars are blocking off the street near the Holiday Inn.
Police said in a press conference at 1pm a Porsche and Holden Commodore that were set alight are being examined as potential getaway cars.
Homicide squad commander Danny Doherty said the man has not been formally identified but is a 48 year old Bondi Junction resident.
‘He was well-known to police. He’s a high-level major player,’ Detective Superintendent Doherty said.
‘Because he’s a major player in the organised crime network and also has links to the Comancheros, high level, he had a big target on his back.’
He said police are looking for two shooters and that emergency crews attempted CPR on the man but he could not be revived.
‘The shooting bears the hallmarks of an organised crime murder,’ he said.
He added in addition to the investigation there are specialist police including Raptor squad detectives already working to prevent retaliation.
‘We’re knocking on doors and interviewing people as we speak.’
Forensic police were seen examining a car about a kilometre away from Spring St on James St which has fire damage to the steering wheel, visor and door
The Porsche SUV is one of two cars that were set alight in Sydney on Tuesday that are being investigated
Investigators suspect this vehicle is also linked to the Bondi Junction shooting
The major police operation is expected to last well into Tuesday afternoon
Moradian, who was also dubbed ‘fathead’, was arrested in 2007 along with his wife Natasha Youkhana after investigations into what NSW police called at the time one of the largest ever cocaine and money laundering syndicates they’d seen in the state.
After months of surveillance police discovered more than $19million in cash and expensive assets that they alleged were from selling at least 100kg of high quality cocaine.
Among the assets seized were luxury cars, boats, jet skis, motorbikes, and 17 guns including a gold plated Magnum .357 pistol.
In an email tendered to the court Youkhana, who hails from Kuwait, warned her husband to be careful.
‘Why do you just sit there and show off – ‘I am the man, I am the man’?’ the email read.
‘Do you see Tony Soprano doing that?
‘He doesn’t care who people think is the boss, (money) is his number one priority. You, on the other hand, want the attention, you get a big head, you love it.
‘People like that won’t survive.’
The man is understood to have been shot in an apartment building carpark with officers scouring the scene for clues
NSW Police said the operation is ongoing and more information would be released
A court later heard Moradian dropped $1million – in cash – on Versace furniture and homewares.
He and his wife had been turning their West Pennant Hills McMansion into an Italian style palazzo – complete which renaissance inspired garden statues and a Sistine Chapel style mural on the ceiling of their lounge room.
Moradian was sentenced to 16 years jail for his role in the syndicate, which would import one kilogram bricks of cocaine for $30,000 from Chicago and then sell them in Sydney for $190,000.
Dozens of police were on the scene with the gunned down man believed to have underworld links
Pedestrians were seen being directed away from the area by police posted along the street
Police said in a statement: ‘About 8.30am emergency services were called to Spring Street, Bondi Junction, following reports a man had been shot while he was sitting in a stationary vehicle in a carpark.
‘The male driver died at the scene. He has not been formally identified but is believed to be aged in his 40s.
‘Police believe a burnt-out Porsche located on James Street, Bondi Junction, about the same time, is linked to the shooting.
‘Detectives are also investigating whether a second burnt-out vehicle – a Holden Commodore located on Cook Lane, Zetland – is potentially linked to the shooting.
‘Three crime scenes have been established, which will be forensically examined by specialist police.
‘Officers from Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command and detectives from the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad have commenced an investigation.’
How slain cocaine kingpin dubbed ‘Australia’s Tony Soprano’ turned his suburban McMansion into a ‘Versace palace’
The cocaine cartel boss executed in a gangland hit in Bondi Junction in Sydney‘s eastern suburbs was called Sydney’s ‘Tony Soprano’ by his own wife who warned him he would not ‘survive’ if he kept showing off.
Alen Moradian, 49, was shot in the underground carpark of an apartment building next door to Bondi Junction’s Holiday Inn hotel on Spring Street before 8.30am on Tuesday.
He was handed a 16-year jail sentence in 2011 for his role as boss of the ‘Golden Gun’ drug syndicate which imported and sole more than 300kg of cocaine into Australia 2005 and 2006.
Alen Moradian had used the proceeds of the Golden Gun drug-smuggling operation to deck out his West Pennant Hills mansion in designer decor, complete with a Sistine Chapel-esque ceiling (pictured)
Moradian, whop had links to the Comanchero bikie gang, had used the proceeds of the drug-smuggling operation to deck out his West Pennant Hills mansion in designer decor.
It contained with a Sistine Chapel-esque ceiling, with police dubbing it the ‘Versace palace’.
But during his trial it emerged his wife, Natasha Moradian, had warned her husband against showing off.
‘Why do you just sit there and show off… do you see Tony Soprano doing that? He points it all off on a junior for a reason – to take the heat away from him,’ an email Ms Moradian wrote to her husband read.
‘You, on the other hand, want the attention, you get a big head, you love it. People like that won’t survive,’ the email read.
Moradian had allegedly spent $1 million in cash in Versace to kit out his ‘palace’
