Bali detectives have revealed they tracked down the three Australians accused of a gangland hit on two Melbourne men through the tattoos on one of those arrested.
Zivan ‘Stipe’ Radmanovic, 35, and Sanar Ghanim, 34, were shot just after midnight on Saturday at a villa in Munggu, in Badung Regency in Bali’s south, in an attack believed to be linked to Melbourne’s feuding Middle Eastern crime syndicates.
Midolmore Pasa Tupou, 37, Darcy Jenson, 27, and Mevlut Coskun, 23, were arrested and brought back to Bali on Wednesday after an intense five-day police manhunt.
Jenson was arrested at Jakarta Airport as he tried to get through an e-passport reader to board a flight to Singapore and then on to Cambodia.
Tupou and Coskun managed to make it out of the country to Cambodia but were identified by Interpol who swooped to arrest them in Phnom Penh and returned them to Indonesia.
Bali Police revealed on Wednesday how the gang allegedly fled across Indonesia after the shooting, escaping the scene on motorbikes before switching cars twice on an 18-hour, 1200km getaway to Jakarta.
Now detectives have revealed they were first traced through Tupou’s distinctive tattoos which were first picked up on CCTV as he bought cigarettes near the villa where the attack unfolded.
Tupou has a combination of traditional Tongan artwork inked onto his skin as well as the 676-international telephone dialling code for Tonga tattooed in huge numbers down his shin.
Midolmore Tupou (pictured), was arrested in Cambodia after his tattoos led police to trace him and his co-accused
Sanar Ghanim was allegedly shot several times in the attack and rushed to hospital but has since been discharged
Zivan Radmanovic, 32, (pictured with his wife Jazmyn Gourdeas) died at a luxury villa in Munggu, in the Badung Regency, on Friday night
The tattoos were clearly visible in pictures of Tupou as he was being pushed in a wheelchair through Jakarta Airport after he was deported back to Indonesia.
‘Luckily Tupou had time to buy cigarettes not far from the crime scene a few moments before the shooting,’ one detective told local Bali media.
He was later spotted on CCTV at another shop buying groceries in Jembrana in the holiday island’s west, close to a short sea crossing to the Javanese mainland.
The alleged hit squad swapped their motorbikes for a Toyota Fortuner in Tabanan, 30km from the villa where the attack unfolded.
Tupou was spotted on CCTV getting out of the car in Jembrana before police allege they then crossed the sea to Java and switched to a Suzuki XL-7 SUV.
There police said they lost track of them as they made the long-distance trek to Jakarta Airport and allegedly tried to flee the country.
But the delay in reaching the airport allowed Indonesian authorities to identify them from the CCTV footage and put out the Interpol alert, stopping Jenson as he tried to leave and identifying Tupou and Coskun in Singapore.
On Thursday, Bali police revealed more details about how they allege the hit squad struck at the luxury villa.
After the shooting, the suspects allegedly travelled across Indonesia in a bid to flee the country
Another alleged member of the hit squad gang Mevlut Coskun (pictured) was arrested in Cambodia
Darcy Francesco Jenson (pictured) was arrested in Jakarta, about 18 hours’ drive west from the scene of the shooting
They claim Coskun supplied the hardware required, including a fluorescent orange sledgehammer which was used to smash down the villa’s door.
He is also accused of lining up the transport for the alleged gunmen and allegedly stole the Suzuki used in the getaway, assisted by the other pair.
The three were all arrested as soon as they touched down back at Bali’s Denpasar Airport.
Detectives are now working with forensic experts as they pore over evidence from the crime scene, including blood samples, the sledgehammer, bullet casings and projectiles, and face coverings.
The crime squad is also looking at more CCTV footage, a vehicle and travel history, said a police spokesman.
The three can be held without charge for months while police investigate the killing.
Once they present their dossier of evidence, the three will be handed over to a prosecutor who will then send them to Bali’s notorious Kerobokan Prison.
They will then face a court hearing to be formally charged, and kept at Kerobokan throughout their trial until a verdict and possible sentence.
The three Australians could face the death penalty if they are charged and convicted of premeditated murder under Indonesian law
Police also seized cash, passports, vehicles and a sledgehammer as part of their investigation
They are being investigated for premeditated murder which under Indonesian law can carry the death sentence.
Radmanovic, who had 175 court appearances to his name, died in front of his wife in the villa toilet, while Ghanim was rushed to Kuta’s BIMC Hospital with multiple injuries.
He was discharged from hospital on Sunday in a wheelchair, nursing a bandaged leg, and police say he has so far refused to co-operate with local authorities.
Ghanim is the former partner of Danielle Stephens, daughter of notorious Australian drug trafficker Carl Williams, who was murdered in Victoria’s Barwon jail in 2010.
Radmanovic’s wife Jazmyn Gourdeas, 29, was reportedly asleep at the villa when she awoke to the sound of her husband screaming at around 12.15am.
From behind a blanket, the mother-of-six said she witnessed the man in the orange jacket and another man open fire on her husband while he was in the bathroom.
Shortly afterwards, she heard further gunshots and Ghanim screaming from a separate room after he was gunned down in his bedroom.
With her husband already dead, Ms Gourdeas tried to stem Ghanim’s bleeding until emergency services arrived.
Bali police display evidence related to the shooting of two Australians, at a police station in Badung, Bali, Indonesia
The family of Stipe Radmanovic (pictured with his stepdaughter) have now signed the paperwork for an autopsy to be carried out, after initially delaying the process
Sanar Ghanim (right) is the former partner of Melbourne underworld figure Carl Williams’ stepdaughter Danielle Stephens (left)
A fourth person in the villa – believed to be a family member – managed to flee the property while gunshots rang out.
Police found 17 bullet casings and 55 bullet fragments at the scene.
Ghanim and Radmanovic’s family are currently being kept on the island ‘under close police watch’, authorities said.
Radmanovic and Ms Gourdeas are understood to have arrived last Thursday to celebrate her 30th birthday in Bali, where Ghanim and his partner had reportedly been living for years.
Ghanim’s long-standing association with Melbourne’s criminal underworld goes deeper than just family ties.
In 2014, he was jailed following the shooting of fellow associate Serkan Kala after a dispute at a gym escalated. He and a co-accused pleaded guilty.
