THE BLOODY DRUG WAR GANG THAT'S SHOOTING UP IN SYDNEY

A ruthless gang associated with the King Cross drug boss Danny Karam was
behind the murder of three innocent people, the drive-by shooting at
Lakemba Police Station last year and 18 other shootings across Sydney.

Police have also revealed that the organised gang lured their own leader,
Karam, to his death when they executed him outside a Surry Hills apartment
block last December.

The three innocent people killed were a 14-year-old Campsie schoolboy,
Edward Lee, at Punchbowl in October last year, and friends Mr Adam Wright,
23, and Mr Michael Hurle, 24, outside the Five Dock Hotel in July.

Police said the murders of the schoolboy and two men were carried out by
the gang, which has been engaged in a drug trade power struggle since at
least last March.

Weapons used by the gang have also been linked by police ballistic experts
to the October 31 drive-by shooting on Lakemba Police Station, two separate
attacks on police officers, and 16 other leg woundings and drive-by shootings.

One of the drive-by shootings was the mistaken attack on March 3 on the
house of a supporter of the State Labor MP Mr Tony Stewart, whose Lakemba
electorate has been the scene of the majority of the attacks.

The Crime Agencies Commander, Assistant Commissioner Clive Small, confirmed
the links yesterday in detailing the growing toll of victims of the
10-member gang.

Mr Small said the gang - whose members he identified as men of
Mediterranean and Middle Eastern appearance aged between 20 and their 30s -
had been identified in an eight-month-long operation.

He said the gang's ruthlessness was displayed by the murders of the three
innocent people, who had had no dealings with them but were in the wrong
place at the wrong time; the wounding last December of the Rose Bay police
constable Chris Patrech; and the June gun attack on a Bankstown Highway
patrol officer when he stopped three men in a stolen car at Condell Park.

"These are a group of people who are involved on any measure in serious
organised crime and their activities range from drug dealing, extortion and
violence," Mr Small said. "There is no one common thread or one common
point to all these acts.

"... this is a small group of very dangerous people who are motivated by
greed and who have little loyalty with anyone around them."

olice also revealed that a power struggle within the gang had led to the
ambush and assassination of its leader, Danny Georges Karam, 36, on
December 13.

The execution followed a drive-by shooting at the EP1 night club in Kings
Cross duringwhich more than 50 shots were fired at the club.

Karam, a major Kings Cross drug dealer, is believed to have been involved
in a struggle for control of drug markets across Sydney.

Mr Small said a .45 calibre Norinco pistol discarded by a man who fled the
scene of the Rushcutters Bay shooting of Constable Patrech had been linked
to some of the 16 bullets which killed Karam as he sat in his 4WD.

The same pistol had been identified as one of the guns used in the attack
on Lakemba Police Station.

A 12-gauge pump-action shotgun found on the back seat of Karam's car had
also been linked to the EP1 attack.

"A 9mm handgun, one of the weapons used in the Lakemba Police Station
shooting, has been linked to another eight shootings," Mr Small said.

"We also know a second 9mm handgun used in the EP1 shooting was used in
three other shootings."

Mr Small added: "I think it is timely for members of the gang to be well
aware that Danny Karam was assassinated by his own group. There may well be
members of that syndicate who are unaware of that fact."

Police were making a "one-off offer for any people who may be involved in
the gang, not as principals but on the peripheries of it, or involved in
some incidents, to come forward and negotiate a deal with us".