Kazem Hamad: From Homeless Teen to Most Wanted

Every city has its crime stories, but few end with a name on an international wanted list. Kazem Hamad — the Iraqi-born gangster accused of masterminding Melbourne’s tobacco war — was arrested in Iraq in January 2026, with the AFP calling him its “number one target,” his path from homeless teen to deported drug convict as stark a warning as any crime statistic.

Arrested in Iraq: January 2026 · Named one of Australia’s most wanted: October 2025 · Deported to Iraq: After serving prison time for drug offences · Started crime career at age: 16 (homeless, drug-addicted) · Alleged role in tobacco war: Mastermind of Melbourne’s tobacco war arson attacks · AFP designation: Number one target

Six facts, one pattern: Hamad’s criminal identity was forged in Australia, but the consequences are now playing out across international borders.

Who are the most wanted men in Australia?

The easy way to think about Australia’s most wanted list is wrong. There is no single poster on a wall. There is an operational priority list — and in October 2025, Kazem Hamad’s name joined it.

Current Australian Federal Police most wanted list

• AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett described Hamad as the agency’s “number one target” — a designation that reflects an AFP priority, not necessarily a formal public ranking of Australia’s most-wanted criminals (ABC News Australia, Australia’s national broadcaster)
• His listing was tied to his alleged role in the tobacco war, not to a single dramatic crime (The Nightly, Australian news site)

That distinction is easy to lose in headlines. A most-wanted list in the popular imagination is a gallery of faces; the AFP’s version is a working document. Hamad topped it because the alleged harm around him made him the immediate priority.

The implication: “number one target” was never a measure of fame. It was a statement of operational intent from an agency that had already been acting on it.

Kazem Hamad’s inclusion among the most wanted

• Australian authorities identified the arrested man as Kazem “Kaz” Hamad, also known as Kadhim Malik Hamad Rabah al-Hajami (ABC News Australia, Australia’s national broadcaster)
• He had been deported from Australia in 2023 after a heroin-trafficking conviction, according to reporting on the case (The West Australian, Perth-based newspaper)

Hamad’s profile did not fit the usual mold of a fugitive. He was not hiding in the Australian bush or moving between suburbs. He was in Iraq, a country that had already expelled him once, and Australian authorities suspected he was allegedly running an arson campaign from abroad.

What are the tobacco wars in Melbourne?

Before Hamad became a headline, there was a simpler question: why were tobacco shops burning across Melbourne?

Origins of the Melbourne tobacco war

• The conflict is a struggle for control of the black market in tobacco supply and distribution (The West Australian, Perth-based newspaper)
• The fighting was done with fire: alleged firebombings of tobacco shops and businesses in Victoria (ABC News Australia, Australia’s national broadcaster)

The prize was a black market built on untaxed tobacco, and the turf battles were fought in the open. Shops were targeted, businesses destroyed, and the conflict eventually spread beyond Melbourne into other states.

The pattern is familiar to anyone who has watched organized crime before: when a legal product becomes expensive, an illegal supply chain fills the gap — and the people who control that chain protect it violently.

Role of Kazem Hamad in the tobacco conflict

• Australian reporting links Hamad to Melbourne’s illicit-tobacco conflict — but through allegations, with no reported Australian conviction for tobacco-war conduct (ABC News Australia, Australia’s national broadcaster)
• Reports described him as the alleged mastermind of the arson campaign — a figure who could direct violence from abroad while staying out of reach (Nine News, Australian media outlet)

In the AFP’s framing, Hamad was not a foot soldier. He was the man who could sit in another country and allegedly orchestrate a campaign of arson against Melbourne businesses. That is what made him different from the usual gangland figure — and what made him the agency’s priority.

Wave of arson attacks linked to the war

• The conflict spread across state lines, widening the law-enforcement response (Nine News, Australian media outlet)
• Arson attacks on tobacco retailers became the signature tactic of the dispute (ABC News Australia, Australia’s national broadcaster)

For business owners, the war was not abstract. A firebombed shop is a total loss — stock, fixtures, livelihood. The violence was the message, and the message was about who controlled the market.

What are the latest news on the Australian underworld?

The biggest news out of the Australian underworld in early 2026 was not a shooting or a fire. It was an arrest in Iraq.

Arrest of Kazem Hamad in Iraq

• Iraqi authorities arrested Hamad in January 2026 over alleged drug importation and smuggling offences (ABC News Australia, Australia’s national broadcaster)
• The arrest was publicly reported on 13–14 January 2026 (The Nightly, Australian news site)

The AFP confirmed Hamad’s identity after Iraqi authorities announced the arrest. The confirmation mattered because for months, the AFP had been tracking a man it believed was orchestrating violence from overseas — and now he was in custody.

AFP statement on the number one target

• AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett described Hamad as the AFP’s “number one target” (ABC News Australia, Australia’s national broadcaster)
• The wording refers to an AFP priority designation, not necessarily a formal public ranking of Australia’s most-wanted criminals (ABC News Australia, Australia’s national broadcaster)

Barrett’s statement was notable for its directness. The AFP does not often attach that kind of label to a single individual, particularly one who was outside the country. The message was clear: the agency considered Hamad its single most important outstanding target.

Impact on Melbourne’s underworld

• The AFP supplied information to Iraqi law-enforcement officials in late 2025 (Nine News, Australian media outlet)
• Australian officials said Iraqi authorities made an independent decision to arrest Hamad after conducting their own investigation (Nine News, Australian media outlet)
• The Iraqi National Centre for International Judicial Cooperation said the arrest followed an official request from Australia (The Nightly, Australian news site)

The official accounts differ in emphasis. Australia notes that the Iraqis acted independently; Iraq notes that Australia had asked. Both versions end the same way: Hamad was in custody.

The upshot for the underworld: leaving Australia no longer ends an investigation. The files follow, and so do the requests to foreign counterparts.

Who are some famous Australian gangsters?

Kazem Hamad is the latest name in a lineage that runs deep through Australian crime history.

Historical figures: Chopper Read, Squizzy Taylor

• Famous gangsters have shaped Melbourne’s underworld, a lineage that runs from Squizzy Taylor to Chopper Read (The West Australian, Perth-based newspaper)
• Hamad is the latest addition to that line — an alleged architect of arson, not a folk hero

Squizzy Taylor belongs to a different era of Melbourne crime; Chopper Read became a figure of popular imagination. Hamad is being written into that history in real time, though his story is grimmer: a homeless teenager, a drug conviction, a deportation, and an arrest in Iraq.

As 60 Minutes Australia documented in its investigation of his rise, the distance between street-level desperation and organized crime can close faster than the public realizes.

Contemporary figures: Tony Mokbel, Kazem Hamad

• Tony Mokbel is a convicted drug trafficker and a key figure in Melbourne’s drug trade (Nine News, Australian media outlet)
• Hamad was, before his arrest, the AFP’s “number one target” (ABC News Australia, Australia’s national broadcaster)

Mokbel and Hamad belong to different chapters of the same story. Mokbel’s era was built on drugs; Hamad’s alleged era was built on tobacco. The through-line is the market — and the willingness to burn down a competitor’s shop to protect it.

Comparison of their criminal careers

• Mokbel’s case predates the tobacco wars and ended in a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking (Nine News, Australian media outlet)
• Hamad’s alleged specialty was different: tobacco, arson, and an allegedly cross-border command structure

Put bluntly: Mokbel was caught, convicted, and jailed in Australia. Hamad was deported, allegedly re-offended from abroad, and arrested in Iraq. One case closed in an Australian courtroom; the other is still unfolding across two jurisdictions.

What is Tony Mokbel doing now?

Tony Mokbel was the last gangster to dominate Melbourne’s headlines the way Hamad did. His current status is quieter, but no less defining.

Mokbel’s current incarceration status

• Tony Mokbel is serving a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking (Nine News, Australian media outlet)
• He was a key figure in Melbourne’s drug trade before his conviction (Nine News, Australian media outlet)

Mokbel remains in prison. His case stands as the reference point for how long an underworld career can last when Australian courts get involved.

Connection to Melbourne’s drug trade

• Mokbel’s network operated during a period when Melbourne’s organized crime was defined by drug trafficking (Nine News, Australian media outlet)
• His conviction predates the tobacco wars, which emerged after a different illegal market took shape

The shift from Mokbel’s drug era to the tobacco war era was not seamless. It involved arrests, deportations, and a changing cast of players — but the underlying incentive stayed the same: control an illegal market, and the money follows.

How his case compares to Kazem Hamad’s

• Mokbel was convicted and jailed in Australia; Hamad was deported and arrested in Iraq
• Both men are linked to organized crime in Melbourne, but their legal outcomes diverge sharply

Mokbel’s case went through Australian courts. Hamad’s case is going through Iraqi ones. For Melbourne’s underworld, that is a new and uncomfortable precedent.

Why this matters: if Hamad faces consequences in Iraq but never in Australia, the message to other deported offenders is ambiguous. Leave the country, and the legal exposure changes — even if the AFP keeps watching.

Kazem Hamad timeline: from homeless teen to arrest in Iraq

Four moments trace the arc — a teenager on the streets, a convicted drug trafficker deported, a most-wanted designation, and an arrest in Iraq. The timeline below draws on reporting from ABC News Australia, The Nightly, Nine News and The West Australian.

The timeline shows how quickly a most-wanted designation turned into an arrest. From October 2025 to January 2026, Hamad went from named target to detainee — a reminder that AFP priority designations come with resources attached.

What’s confirmed and what’s still unclear

Key statements on the Hamad case

“Number one target” was how AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett described Kazem Hamad — a phrase that framed the arrest as a priority operation, not a publicity stunt.

Krissy Barrett, AFP Commissioner, via ABC News Australia

The arrest followed an official request from Australia.

Iraqi National Centre for International Judicial Cooperation, via The Nightly

Melbourne’s tobacco conflict is, at bottom, a struggle for control of the black market in tobacco supply and distribution.

The West Australian, reporting on the illicit tobacco trade

What the statements share is a sense of scale. Australian and Iraqi authorities both reached for superlatives when describing Hamad — “number one target,” “official request,” “black market.” The language matched the stakes.

None of this means the tobacco war is over. The black market that fueled it is still there, and the AFP’s next move will determine whether Hamad’s arrest becomes a turning point or the start of a longer negotiation. For the AFP, the implication is clear: one arrest, however significant, only matters if it disrupts the market that created the war — otherwise, someone else will fill the vacuum.

Related reading: Kazem Hamad arrested in Iraq · Tony Burke on Kaz Hamad arrest: his power structure

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Kazem Hamad arrested in Iraq — ABC News Australia
• Tony Burke on Kaz Hamad arrest: his power structure — ABC News Australia