Four Melburnians linked to gun in mistaken-identity killing of Sydney student

Four Melburnians are being extradited to NSW over alleged links to the gun used in a fatal shooting of an innocent university student in Sydney’s south-west as part of the city’s gangland war .

Police alleged in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday that Vaifaalie Tuafuti, Omar Mohamed, Amenah Abusud and a child worked for the Alameddine crime family in a recent spate of violence against the so-called Coconut Cartel.

A police summary read out in Abusud’s extradition hearing revealed investigators have linked the four to a gun found at the family home in the suburb of Glen Alpine, where Marco Tapia, 23, was shot dead in his bed early on September 1 .

NSW Police has said the wrong address was targeted in what is believed to have been a botched organised-crime killing. Two teenagers were charged with murder early on Thursday over the incident. The pair did not apply for bail and were remanded in custody to face court again on November 13.

The four Victorians mentioned in court have not been charged over Tapia’s death but are accused of a home invasion in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville, and shooting cars in Turrella the night before.

Ballistic analysis found discharged cartridge cases at the two scenes matched and were then “positively mapped” to the Glen Alpine homicide scene, where a firearm was found, a NSW Police investigator testified on Thursday.

“Subsequent ballistic examination confirmed that the firearm was used to discharge rounds recovered from all three crime scenes,” he said.

“Investigations relating to the homicide at Mount Sugarloaf Drive, Glen Alpine, remain ongoing.”

NSW Police Raptor Squad commander Brad Abdy said the gun allegedly used at Hurstville and Turrella was found at the Glen Alpine crime scene but the investigation of Tapia’s death is “extremely complex”, and homicide detectives are still working to determine if the Melburnians can be charged with his murder.

“It’s very important that all the evidence is examined before people are charged obviously with a very serious offence of murder,” Abdy said on Friday.

Police say Tuafuti, Mohamed, Abusud and a child left Donnybrook in Melbourne’s north late on August 29 and drove to Campbelltown in Sydney’s south-west, arriving at an Airbnb property about 5am on August 30.

A senior constable from NSW Police’s anti-gang Raptor squad said the group were “contracted by a faction of the Alameddine organised-crime network … for the purposes of committing extremely violent crimes targeting several Sydney-based close associates of the Coconut Cartel”.

Court documents reveal Mohamed, Tuafuti, the child, aged 16, and an unknown fourth person are accused of breaking into a home in Hurstville about 2am on August 31. No one was home.

“Offenders utilised a sledgehammer to gain entry to the premises and discharged a round of ammunition into a wall inside,” a statement of alleged facts says.