What We Know About the Death of Ex-Bikie Boss Mick Hawi

Ex-Comanchero bikie boss, Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi was executed outside Rockwell Fitness First in Sydney on Thursday. Sitting in his black Mercedes 4WD around noon, he was shot half a dozen times by two masked hitmen who then fled the scene.

Soon after the shooting, a different high-performance Mercedes with fake number plates was set on fire in Chandler St, Rockdale. NSW police have released CCTV of two suspected assassins fleeing via backstreets.

VICE contacted a bikie insider who knew Hawi prior to his imprisonment: “Mick was a big player in Sydney before being a bikie was fashionable and tensions with the [Hells] Angels and his own club have been high ever since he got out [of prison]," said the source, who wished to remain anonymous. "He was a man of his word, he had balls, demanded respect, and didn't give a fuck.”

The story likely begins with Sydney Airport’s infamous 2009 bikie brawl. Mick Hawi was originally charged with murdering Anthony Zervas, the younger brother of a Hells Angels bikie, however after winning an appeal, the judge overturned the conviction and in 2011 Hawi was sentenced to five years for manslaughter.

In 2015, the Comanchero boss was released early after the parole board decided that he’d shown “satisfactory prison performance.”

Given the rumours that the Hells Angels still wanted retaliation, and tensions within his own former club, the Comancheros, Mick Hawi was probably a lot safer in prison.

“There have been rumours floating around about the [Hells] Angels involvement," explained our bikie source. "In Sydney they've got a pretty notorious chapter in Parramatta that wouldn’t cop that sort of shit.”

Back in 2009, the brawl at Sydney Airport was sparked when Mick Hawi just happened to run into the president of the Hells Angels, Derek Wainohu, on a domestic flight from Adelaide, via Melbourne. As a crown witnesses had testified in the trial, a member of the Comancheros had yelled, “You are a dead man walking!” as they boarded the plane.

The court heard that upon arrival in Sydney, Anthony Zervas approached the Comancheros Boss with a pair of scissors—a move that naturally sparked a brawl. Anthony Zervas suffered fatal head injuries after getting beaten with a 17-kilo steel bollard, along with multiple stab wounds to the chest. The brawl allegedly ended with Mick screaming, “Next time we see you, you’re going to have bullets through you.”

The bikie source also told VICE, “The Commo’s (Comancheros) have a notorious reputation for turning on one another. Different chapters always stand over each other for gear even though they wear the same patch. There’s always new groups being started inside the club and if you ask them who’s running the show it basically depends on who you ask.”

Underworld sources told The Daily Telegraph that an internal war had been brewing over the leadership of the Comancheros, with a series of “massive arguments” forcing notorious Comanchero boss Mark Buddle to send a text message to his members declaring, “I’m the fucking commander of the world… no one is to touch another member or set up another chapter without my permission.”

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the NSW Police have confirmed the existence of internal conflicts within the Comancheros and that Strike Force Raptor has been on high-alert for months. However, as we’ve got to repeat, any connection between infighting at the Comancheros and the murder of Mick Hawi is still speculation at this stage.