Feared crime lord Kaz Hamad had a humble day job running a petrol station when police pounced on him in Iraq.
Iraqi law enforcement swooped on Kadhim Malik Hamad Rabah al-Hajami – better known on home soil as Kaz Hamad – in January ‘in response to an official request from Australia’, sending shockwaves through the Melbourne underworld.
Hamad is the suspected mastermind of Australia’s illicit tobacco trade and the alleged warlord behind countless fire-bombings of rival tobacco shops across Victoria.
But the Daily Mail can now reveal Hamad had been working as a service station manager in Iraq when he was taken into custody.
An underworld source claimed Hamad had been buying up petrol stations leading up to his arrest.
‘I would have loved to have seen him in the branded polos,’ the source told Daily Mail. ‘The bloke was effectively Apu from The Simpsons when they got him.’
In a 45-minute interview recorded before his arrest, Hamad himself told controversial true crime reporter Ryan Naumenko of his supposed day job, although he did not reveal exactly what it was he did.
‘I’ve got a good job now. I’ve got a job now too here (in Iraq),’ he said.
Kaz Hamad (centre) with former bikie enforcer Toby Mitchell and a female boxing ring girl
Hamad told Naumenko he came from a ‘big family’ who had strong ties with the Iraqi government.
‘My whole family is in government,’ he said.
‘So all the politicians, the MPs, I’ve got s***loads of them.’
The revelations came amid hackers taking down Naumenko’s news site, forcing him to move to an alternate site while technicians restored his original page.
Hamad continued to brag about his charmed life in Iraq before authorities swooped.
‘Let me tell you one thing, I’m f***ing happier than I’ve ever been,’ he said.
Hamad told Naumenko he had been thrown in jail twice while on the run from Australian authorities.
‘I got locked up two times,’ he said.
Ryan Naumenko (pictured) spoke to Kaz Hamad leading up to his arrest
‘I got locked up in Malaysia. I got grabbed in Malaysia then Iraq came, the Interpol of Iraq, came and grabbed me and took me back to Iraq and I was out three days later.’
Hamad claimed he had also been imprisoned in Turkey and had been on bail in Iraq at the time of his chat with Naumenko.
‘Til this case in Iraq finishes, I can’t be taken anywhere else,’ he said.
‘Because I’m not an Australian citizen.’
Hamad arrogantly boasted that Australian authorities would never be able to secure his return to Australia to face trial over his alleged links to the Tobacco War.
‘They know. I’ve heard the messages in the past through other parties. They’ve said: “We can’t get him. Just cannot be got”,’ he said.
Hamad claimed the only way he could ‘be got’ was from someone firing a rocket into his car.
‘But even my car, I’ve got a bulletproof f***ing car … I’ve got heaps. Not just one,’ he said.
Kaz Hamad claimed to own a number of bulletproof vehicles
Hamad pushed back on Naumenko’s assertion that he had ‘s***’ on the Australian government.
‘No, I didn’t,’ he said. ‘I didn’t s*** on no-one. I s*** on the flops,’ he said.
Those ‘flops’ had disrespected him and attempted to welch on supposed debts and intimidate him, Hamad claimed.
‘I wasn’t a goose before and (people think) now I’ve come out of my shell. I’ve been who I am for all my f***ing life,’ he said.
Hamad had been unapologetic over his quest to rule Australia’s illicit tobacco trade, and insisted to Naumenko that he had no fears about ever returning to jail.
He has previously served extended periods behind bars in Australia for assault, armed robbery, burglary, kidnapping and drug dealing.
Victoria Police has accused incompetent arsonists in Hamad’s Tobacco War fire-bombings of being responsible for the murder of Point Cook woman Katey Tangey.
Detective Inspector Chris Murray, of the Arson and Explosives Squad, said Ms Tangey had suffered a ‘horrible’ death in the bungled arson attack.
Victoria Police has accused incompetent arsonists in Hamad’s Tobacco War fire-bombings of being responsible for the murder of Katey Tangey, in a tragic case of mistaken identity
Katey Tangey had been house sitting her brother’s Point Cook home when it was torched
‘Katey Tangey had nothing to do with the illegal tobacco trade, nor did her friends, nor did her family. I just want to make that crystal clear,’ he said then.
‘We’re absolutely convinced of that. They’ve got the wrong address.’
Police suspect Hamad began the state’s Tobacco War in March 2023, just months before Hamad walked out of prison after an eight-year jail sentence.
He is also suspected of ordering the deaths of rivals, including Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim, although murder charges have not been laid
Following Hamad’s arrest, newly appointed Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said Hamad had been its ‘number one target’.
