From tobacco kingpin to terror suspect: Police believe Australian crime boss did Iran’s firebomb bidding

Melbourne tobacco wars kingpin Kazem Hamad is suspected of conspiring with foreign spies to carry out the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue in a development that has led to Iranian diplomats being expelled from Canberra.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, alongside spy chief Mike Burgess, called out Iran’s involvement in at least two antisemitic attacks in Australia, including the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue.

“It is likely Iran directed further attacks as well,” Albanese said. “These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil.”

Burgess said Iran was employing a web of proxies. “[Tehran is] just using cut-outs, including people who are criminal and members of organised crime gangs, to do their bidding or direct their bidding in Australia,” he said.

The move comes as police advance their probe into Hamad’s suspected role in the firebombing of the synagogue and whether he, or members of his gang, did so to curry favour with the Iranian regime.

Hamad and his right-hand man, suspected drug trafficker Ahmed Al Hamza, have based their criminal operations out of Iraq and Iran, where they are susceptible to pressure from both regimes.

In early January, federal and state counterterror investigators in Victoria first made links between Hamad – who is also suspected of being behind a campaign of murder and arson connected to the battle to control Australia’s lucrative illegal tobacco market – and the December firebombing of the synagogue.

By February, Victorian detectives had confirmed the synagogue attack was carried out using the same gangland infrastructure, including a stolen car, utilised by Hamad in some of his tobacco war arson attacks.

In the following months, two sources said further intelligence was gathered pointing to Hamad’s deeper involvement, including via payments traced by counterterror officials.

“There is a heap of material linking Kaz to the firebombing,” one official source claimed.

In late July, Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett, who oversaw counterterror probes before her appointment in early August as the AFP’s new commissioner, publicly confirmed Hamad was one target of the joint state and federal terror taskforce investigation of the synagogue fire.

“Our investigation is not limited to Australia – it involves exploring criminals offshore,” she said at a press conference in July.

“We suspect these [offshore] criminals worked with criminal associates in Victoria to carry out the arson attack. [Hamad] is a name that has come up in our investigation, and that remains one of our ongoing lines of inquiry.”

On Tuesday, Burgess revealed that his agency, ASIO, had identified members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as the puppet masters behind the synagogue attack via a “layer cake of cut-outs”.

The suspected involvement of Hamad not only in up to five tobacco war murders but the synagogue firebombing is likely to increase efforts by Western authorities to bring him to justice, be it in Australia or another country.

Hamad is suspected to be protected in Iraq, where he was born, via powerful relatives and associates in the military and government.

Hamad is allegedly directing Melbourne’s tobacco war from overseas after he was deported to Iraq in 2023 following an eight-year jail sentence. Detectives believe he runs the illegal tobacco part of a billion-dollar multinational enterprise, while Al Hamza allegedly focuses on drug importations.

In February, this masthead revealed how ASIO was targeting figures linked to organised crime and outlaw bikie gangs as it combats antisemitic attacks and plots by hostile nations to harm national security.

At the time of that revelation, Burgess described how the underworld was now in his sights as part of a pivot for the domestic security agency.

Burgess did not confirm it at the time, but his agency was already investigating the links between Australian Middle Eastern organised crime gangs, Iranian intelligence services and the firebombing.

Burgess said at the time he had “grave concerns” that unnamed hostile states were using bikies or other crime groups in Australia to advance their strategic interests.

When asked on Tuesday, if there was organised crime involvement in the attacks, Burgess said there was an “organised crime element offshore”.

While the use by Iran of organised crime figures to engage in acts of terrorism and foreign interference in Australia marks an escalation in the domestic counter-espionage and terror landscape, there are precedents for it overseas.

One is an allegation that that Iran had tasked the Hells Angels to murder a dissident in America.

Historically, ASIO has focused on extremism and espionage, but it is now dealing with an increasing overlap between profit-driven criminal entities and those seeking to undermine Australian interests or community cohesion for political, strategic or other gain.

In his warning to the criminal world in February that ASIO was pursuing some of its members, Burgess told this masthead and 60 Minutes: “If you [gangland figures] are tasked by someone from overseas, and you’re a criminal and you’re doing that for a fee and it is a threat to security, then ASIO will be on your case. I reckon that’s going to be a problem for you.”

Meanwhile, police continue to build a case against Hamad in connection to multiple murders. Last month, senior detectives alleged publicly that the bungled Melbourne arson attack that accidentally claimed the life of burlesque performer Katie Tangey was ordered by Hamad.

Police offered a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

“Those responsible for Katie’s death know they targeted the wrong house, and they have to live with the knowledge that they are responsible for the horrific death of a completely innocent young woman,” senior Victorian police officer Chris Murray said during a press conference in July.

“I’m not suggesting that Kaz Hamad deliberately targeted and killed Tangey,” Murray said. “We know there was a theft of his commodities, being illegal tobacco, and we know that he sought retribution.

“I think even he [Hamad] would be disgusted as to what has transpired here. I’m sure he can get us on the phone and let us know [who] the two individuals who actually did this [are]. They should be held accountable.”

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