An elite team of professional assassins had less than a day to meticulously plan and carry out the execution of underworld figure Sam 'The Punisher' Abdulrahim, an investigation has revealed. The 32-year-old was gunned down in a hail of bullets in an underground car park in Melbourne's north on January 28, 2024.
The Swift and Calculated Ambush
The hit was accelerated after the killers received inside information that Abdulrahim intended to flee the country the very day after his murder. Despite the tight timeframe, the four-man crew prepared three stolen getaway cars, positioning them with petrol cans in suburbs roughly 30 minutes apart.
They knew their target would be at the Quest Preston hotel but faced a critical unknown: would he exit at street level or via the underground car park? The gunmen were forced to wait undetected in the garage until Abdulrahim took the 30-second elevator ride down to his death. His girlfriend, who was with him, survived the attack virtually unharmed; there is no suggestion she was involved.
A Flawed Escape from a 'Secure' Location
The assassins exploited a common vulnerability in Melbourne's inner-city security. Despite the Quest Preston boasting a 'full security building with swipe access', its underground car park can be accessed simply by walking in when the security gates are raised. The crew hid or loitered without raising suspicion before the attack.
After the shooting, heard by a hotel employee who alerted police, the killers initiated a complex escape. They likely fled via a stairwell emergency exit or a roller door. They reached their first getaway vehicle, a stolen Porsche SUV, and sped 1.4 kilometres north to Alexandra Street in Reservoir, a dead-end. The Porsche was then reversed through a fence into a public water reservoir and torched.
The team switched into a pre-positioned Ford Ranger, driving for 25-30 minutes to vacant land on Western Avenue, Westmeadows, where it too was found burned. A third getaway vehicle has never been publicly identified by Victoria Police.
Underworld Links and Violent Retribution
The murder bore the hallmarks of a professional contract. Abdulrahim, who had a $1 million bounty on his head, was notoriously vigilant. He had survived 17 bullets fired at him in May 2024 and being shot eight times at a funeral in 2022. He had been living overseas to evade enemies but returned to Australia for just a couple of days before his planned departure.
Exiled tobacco kingpin Kazem 'Kaz' Hamad, arrested in Iraq last week, is the prime suspect for ordering the hit. In a grim twist, Athan Boursinos, a 21-year-old suspect in Abdulrahim's murder and a member of Hamad's crew, was himself gunned down in Wollert in July 2024. Underworld sources believed Boursinos was one of the Preston gunmen, and his murder was reportedly contracted to a Sydney-based hit team.
Abdulrahim was buried the week he died. His family has since erected a striking black marble shrine at Northern Memorial Park, featuring a nearly six-foot tombstone with photos, a gold-embossed silhouette of him in a boxing pose, and the words 'The Punisher'. He was buried next to an old enemy, Mahmoud Karam, who was shot dead two months prior—a murder for which Hamad is also the prime suspect.
A Victoria Police homicide detective confirmed the investigation into Abdulrahim's murder is ongoing. No CCTV footage from the extensively monitored car park has been released to the public.
