‘Sixteen, heart pumping, about to take a life’: The man targeting Sydney’s teenage hitmen

The murder of engineering student Marco Tapia in his Sydney home is the latest loss of innocent life in a gangland war being waged by inept and often young criminals willing to kill for just a few thousand dollars.

Now the infamous Raptor squad of the NSW Police is targeting those who enlist Sydney’s teenage criminals, beginning with a botched assassination attempt on an NRL star .

Early on February 17, former Bulldogs player Matt Utai was walking down his driveway in Greenacre when gunfire rattled down the street.

After being shot in his leg and shoulder, the former rugby league winger was bleeding out on the nature strip as a black SUV roared away. Utai was rushed into surgery and survived. He has since left the country.

Police allege the getaway driver was just 15, while a second boy the same age sheltered the fugitives. A 16-year-old helped hide the gun. The crew wasn’t really a gang; they were mercenaries.

Raptor Squad commander Brad Abdy says encrypted messages from overseas recruiters can be passed between suburbs to three different people ordering a shooting in Sydney, all without one person knowing each other.

“These aren’t television hitmen who can shoot an apple off someone’s head from 100 metres away,” the detective acting superintendent said in an interview with this masthead.

Organised criminals in Sydney have woken up to the tactics long used by European gangs – teenage boys who take great risks for a fraction of the cost of an adult hitman.

“You’re 16, your heart’s probably pumping out of your chest,” said Abdy. “You’re about to be involved in a crime – and take someone’s life potentially.”

The Raptor Squad’s investigation into Utai’s shooting has now entered its sixth month as the number of dead on Sydney’s streets continues to rise.

On Wednesday afternoon, another man was shot dead at a home in Sydney’s west . Police believe the second shooting in as many days was linked to organised crime. This time the man was gunned down just a couple of hundred metres from a school in what police believe may also be another case of mistaken identity.

In August, Strike Force Halesowen executed search warrants on a storage yard in Katoomba and found six suspected stolen vehicles, cloned number plates, jerry cans, bleach and gloves. Detectives will allege the vehicles were being prepared as “kill cars” for criminal groups – vehicles used by gangs to carry out crimes without recognition.

Teenagers who are caught do far less time in prison, if any. Youth justice is primarily focused on rehabilitation.

The only downside is the inexperience, but few in the criminal underworld seem to care.