Three alleged killers for hire had planned to ambush their unsuspecting victim at his children’s daycare, laying in wait then peppering him with bullets as he arrived to collect his kids on Tuesday afternoon, police allege.
A little-known Vietnamese crime syndicate The Final Crime Family had allegedly commissioned the three would-be assassins to murder a wayward employee. Two other major Vietnamese drug syndicates have allegedly contracted out serious violence – including the murder of an innocent woman – in Sydney since mid-2024.
Police allege the syndicate’s name was written on a note that was to be placed atop the victim’s dead body, the Herald has confirmed, and that the killing was to be livestreamed back to syndicate bosses. One of the alleged assassins was arrested with a Go-Pro strapped to his chest.
Police say they averted certain death and significant collateral damage to innocent bystanders when they pulled two stolen cars over in peak-hour traffic in Revesby on Tuesday afternoon. The alleged plan was so far advanced, police say, that the trio were already wearing balaclavas.
The address of the day-care centre attended by the would-be victim’s children was in the alleged gunmen’s Google Maps, police sources not authorised to speak publicly told this masthead.
“They certainly wanted to send a message,” said one police source.
Police arrested Greall Tighe, 18, Kevin Mundine, 19, and Tyrone Tuiluga Rio, 26, at the scene and charged them each with a raft of offences including conspiracy to commit murder.
None of the trio arrested in Revesby on Tuesday are known to be involved in organised crime, which is highly unusual in cases alleged to involve contract killing.
Contract killing has become increasingly commonplace within Sydney’s underworld as gangs look to outsource their violent enforcement to limit liability and concentrate on the city’s lucrative drug market. Gangs usually work with other “sub-gangs” or organisations with which they have links, not unconnected alleged criminals as was the case here.
Greall Tighe, one of the alleged “kill team”, appeared in court on Wednesday.Credit: Facebook
Police allege they began quietly surveilling The Final Crime Family – which has also undertaken several other conspiracies to murder – and the aspiring killers it allegedly hired several weeks ago when investigators realised they were allegedly gearing up to act.
Still in question is the motive for the alleged planned execution, say sources close to the investigation. One line of inquiry is whether the would-be victim’s loyalties were in question; another is whether he had stolen drugs.
Sources familiar with the investigation said that before that, The Final Crime Family was not well known to authorities. Vietnamese organised crime has been on the march since at least mid-2024, when police began a secretive investigation into rippling violence in Sydney’s south-west.
NSW Crime Commission executive director of criminal investigations Darren Bennett said there were “numerous” Vietnamese crime syndicates operating across NSW.
The characteristics of Vietnamese crime groups, he said, were high levels of violence.
‘A lot of people have been shocked by some of the retribution action by Vietnamese organised crime.’
Darren Bennett, NSW Crime Commission
“A lot of people have been shocked by some of the retribution action by Vietnamese organised crime,” he said.
“They don’t seem to have filter around how they get payback to people who wrong them.”
Vietnamese organised crime was once characterised by cutting people’s arms off with machetes, another source not authorised to speak publicly said.
The Herald revealed on Wednesday that police are looking at potential links between The Final Crime Family and the Victorian syndicate who ordered the kidnap and execution of a Sydney woman whose body was found in a burning car this year.
Detectives maintain that Thi Kim Tran was innocent, and targeted because her husband, allegedly a drug cook for a Vietnamese drug syndicate, had been ripping his employers off to the tune of $80,000 worth of stolen methamphetamine.
Thi Kim Tran was abducted from her Sydney home and found dead in a burnt-out car.Credit: Facebook
In August, police arrested The Anh Nguyen and charged him with Tran’s murder. Nguyen was an “upper echelon” member of the syndicate who had been tasked with resolving the group’s dispute with Tran’s husband and organised a crew of contract killers, police will allege.
“The Victorian syndicate are a major player in Australia, and probably transnational organised crime,” Homicide Squad commander Joe Doueihi said at the time of Nguyen’s arrest.
Nguyen was refused bail and will return to court in November.
“It’s extremely rare and, certainly, this organised crime group have … upset a few people out there in the criminal milieu because this is not the norm,” Doueihi said.
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“Family, females, children are normally not involved in this type of revenge attack.”
A different Vietnamese syndicate was allegedly involved in a six-day rampage last year in which a man was shot in the head and buried alive, a father was found dead in the bush after being disappeared a month earlier, and a third man was kidnapped and his ear partly cut off.
Also based in Victoria, this syndicate also allegedly hired a contract kill crew.
“Unfortunately, it’s been seen quite often now that part of their torturing technique is to sever ears and fingers and toes of people they take hostage,” Doueihi said of the syndicate at the time.
Detective Superintendent Peter Faux, whose organised crime squad was charged with stamping out the violence, said that Vietnamese criminals differed from their counterparts.
“They have a strong focus on loyalty in these groups – part of it is cultural,” he said.
“But for those who breach the trust, there are very significant consequences – it’s violence, and no holds barred.
Organised Crime squad boss Peter Faux deployed Task Force Lupin to quell gang violence.Credit: Nick Moir
“It means they work very well together, and it can be challenging to police because people on the edges of these gangs don’t report anything, even when they become targets.”
The Crime Commission’s Bennett said Vietnamese organised crime usually centres around industrial-scale cannabis cultivation, as well as ice.
“The scale and scope is the major difference [compared to other syndicates] and also the proliferation of in of Vietnamese people both running and providing labor on those sites.”
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