Chilling footage has emerged of a deadly hit squad’s escape after they gunned down Sam Abdulrahim, as gangland figures gathered for his funeral on Thursday.
The footage shows a white Porsche SUV racing down High Street in Melbourne’s Prahran moments after ‘The Punisher’ was executed in a hail of bullets on Tuesday.
The vehicle, a high-powered Porsche Macan SUV, sported near pitch black side windows, completely concealing the four-strong crew of killers within.
Reflection from the windows further hamper any chance police might of had at identifying those inside the vehicle.
The car was later found torched less than 2km away at the end of Alexandra Street – off Northernhay Street – in Reservoir.
Abdulrahim is believed to have been shot up to 10 times inside the underground carpark of the Quest Hotel in Preston, in Melbourne’s north.
The revelations come as mourners converged on the Alawi Islamic Association of Victoria in the northern Melbourne suburb of Epping on Thursday morning for Abdulrahim’s farewell.
A rogues gallery of Melbourne underworld identities, glam beauties and tattooed bikies gathered there to remember the slain gangster.
Abdulrahim, wearing The Punisher logo, was murdered on Tuesday
The white Porsche carrying Abdulrahim’s killers makes its escape
The white Porsche makes its getaway
They arrived in a range of luxury vehicles including Mercedes, Audis, BMWs and Ford Rangers.
Among them was a procession of bikies sporting 1% neck tattoos, while another tattooed bikie arrived on foot and yelled ‘rest in peace’ while smoking a cigarette.
Several mourners were seen embracing one another as they entered the mosque where Abdulrahim’s body lay in a coffin inside.
Hundreds were expected to attend the funeral to pay their respects to the once-feared criminal before his body is laid to rest at the Northern Memorial Park.
Victoria Police established a small presence opposite the mosque and highway patrol monitored roads and streets leading into it in an effort to ward off any likely trouble.
Detectives located Abdulrahim’s killers’ suspected second getaway car on Wednesday close to Melbourne’s international airport, on Western Avenue in Westmeadows.
Like the Porsche, the Ford Ranger had been set ablaze to hide any potential forensic evidence that could identify the killers.
The location of the second vehicle has raised concerns the killers may have made a quick exit overseas, likely to the Middle East.
It was later found on fire a short distance away
It would be the same suspected escape route of the assassins who tried to take out Abdulrahim outside Fawkner cemetery in 2022.
Police have reportedly put all of Australia’s international departure points on high alert for any attempts by the killers to escape Australia, but some fear they may have already ghosted out.
Abdulrahim’s sister Ektimal took to social media just hours after his death with a message for her brother’s killer.
‘Whoever shot my brother to death, I’m after u mother f***er,’ she wrote. ‘I know it’s u dog. Never ends here.’
The former bikie-turned-boxer had been the target of three murder contracts, a prison bashing, three assaults, a dozen fire bombings and seven shootings.
In one attempted hit he was shot eight times and survived, and in another he escaped a barrage of bullets.
The 32-year-old former Mongol bikie had been living in hiding since two shootings at his former family home in Thomastown last year.
Underworld sources say they don’t expect any payback violence on behalf of The Punisher’s friends and allies.
The burnt out remains of the white Porsche used in The Punisher execution
This Ford Ranger was found destroyed a stone’s throw from Melbourne Airport
‘There’s not a sad face around,’ an underworld source told The Age.
Abdulrahim had been put under such unrelenting pressure by his enemies that by the end he had almost no allies left in that world, deserted and left exposed after months of firebombings and shootings targeting anyone he could have once leaned on, it reported.
Underworld sources claimed there had been little talk of revenge for what has happened, but rather hope that the bloody, nerve-shredding reign of terror may be finally ending.
It was a sentiment echoed by veteran organised crime detectives, who view retaliation as unlikely given Abdulrahim and his inner circle couldn’t protect themselves – let alone strike back – in the months leading up to his assassination, it was reported.
