Sydney gangsters had suspicions a mother who was shot dead in a brazen contract killing had leaked information to the police amid claims she was a ‘very big drug dealer’ and died owing people money.
Lametta Fadlallah, 48, was gunned down outside her home in Panania, in the city’s southwest, on Saturday evening while sitting in the back of a Toyota 4WD.
Also in the car was innocent hairdresser Amy Hazouri, 39, who had just finished a shift at her hair salon in Bankstown, believed to have been killed as collateral damage in a hail of gunfire just as they left the home.
The double shooting sent shockwaves through Sydney’s underworld, with investigators probing whether Ms Fadlallah was targeted because of her underworld connections.
However, it has now been revealed she was suspected of leaking information to the NSW Crime Commission before she was violently shot dead, 9News reports.
Ms Fadlallah, 48, (pictured) was gunned down outside her home in Panania, south-west Sydney, on Saturday evening while sitting in the back of a Toyota 4WD.
Ms Fadlallah’s family (pictured left to right, her sister, sister-in-law) said she deserved to be ‘remembered well’
Four cars were found burnt out in nearby suburbs, a common method used in gangland hits
A crime world source has claimed she was an active member of the city’s drug trade and subsequently owed people money, with police noting her 30-year connection to some of the city’s most notorious gangsters.
Ms Fadlallah was first married to Shadi Derbas in the 1990s, a key member of the Telopea St Gang – coined after the Punchbowl, Western Sydney street – which rose to infamy between 1998 and 2000 as a hornets’ nest of Middle Eastern gang activity.
Also in the car was hairdresser Amy Hazouri, 39, (pictured) believed to have been killed as collateral damage in a hail of gunfire just as they were leaving the hom
More recently, she was the long-term girlfriend of underworld figure Helal Safi – who was found dead in a Sydney apartment in January 2021 after suffering a heart attack.
Neighbours told the Sydney Morning Herald her Range Rover appeared to have been badly hit at both ends in May, only a few months before she was shot dead.
Ms Fadlallah was also linked to several businesses, including a luxury car hire service that was registered to her home.
The two slain women are now the 15th and 16th victims of the bloody gang war, with there believed to be up to three active contracts to kill at any given time.
Police have condemned the ‘extreme violence’ unfolding on Sydney’s streets, with the gunning down of two women marking a bloodthirsty new chapter.
Ms Hazouri’s heartbroken father said his hairdresser daughter was an ‘angel’ and that he wished he’d died instead.
On Monday night, the devastated father, Khaled, broke down crying while describing his beautiful daughter.
‘Angel, angel,’ he told Nine News. ‘Friendly to every people.’
In broken English, Mr Hazouri told Daily Mail Australia his daughter always had a smile and offered a hand wherever needed.
Safi (pictured) was a ‘major’ underworld player and survived 42 stab wounds in jail back in 2010. Ms Fadlallah is understood to have been the criminal’s long-term girlfriend
Lametta Fadlallah, 48 (pictured), she is believed to have been targeted due to her links to organised crime after marrying two of the city’s most infamous drug kingpins
Police allege the shooting was a targeted attack (a burnt out car found in a nearby suburb)
Ms Fadlallah’s adult son, Abraham Derbas said his mother should be remembered as a ‘very nice lady’, while his grandmother, ZamZam Derbas, described what had happened as an unprecedented ‘tragedy’.
‘Nothing ever happened like this before, nothing,’ she said.
Police have since revealed a 20-year-old man was driving the Toyota 4WD the two women were shot in and managed to drive away while the vehicle was still under fire. A 16-year-old girl was also in the front car and miraculously survived.
Once the driver reached safety around the corner he called emergency services for help to save the two shot women in the back seat.
Earlier in the week, an underworld source who knew Ms Fadlallah told the Daily Telegraph she could have been killed because she ‘knew too much’.
‘She was right into the life. She would carry the guns for the boys, give alibis when needed and right up till she was killed mixing with gangsters,’ they said.
‘She always thought she was smart but this is the most dangerous Sydney has ever been. Killing women so openly is next level.
An underworld source who knew Ms Fadlallah (pictured) told the Daily Telegraph she could have been killed because she ‘knew too much’
The 4WD the women were in is towed away behind the crime scene (pictured)
NSW Police Detective Inspector Danny Doherty on Sunday acknowledged the shooting was ‘unprecedented’ in that an ‘unwritten law’ among Sydney’s underworld that women and families were off-limits had been broken.
He said police would stop at nothing to catch the perpetrators.
‘This is an appalling attack on two women. It was a planned murder, an assassination really, and it’s happened in a public street in Sydney,’ he said.
‘It’s unacceptable by any standards. It’s unprecedented really. And we are determined to get the answers for the family.’
‘They don’t discriminate if you’re male or female. Every rule book has been thrown out, and that is concerning.’