The NRL star, a wayward son and a gangland war with Sydney’s most notorious crime family

A new threat to the Alameddines’ supremacy – the self-proclaimed Coconut Cartel – has emerged amid an escalating conflict over control a lucrative drug trade. AdvertisementCrimeThe NRL star, a wayward son and a gangland war with Sydney’s most notorious crime familyA new threat to the Alameddine family’s supremacy – the self-proclaimed Coconut Cartel – has emerged amid an escalating conflict over control of Sydney’s lucrative drug trade.By Riley Walter and Perry DuffinFebruary 21, 2026A man sets himself alight firebombing Iziah Utai’s Merrylands barbershop. The shop was attacked twice last May.Nine NewsSaveYou have reached your maximum number of saved items.Remove items from your saved list to add more.ShareAAABy late 2022, the heat was on the Alameddine crime family. The long-time rulers of Sydney’s underworld had survived a years-long feud with the rival Hamzy family, but they’d been left bloodied and bruised – and police were circling.As detectives closed the net on the notorious Merrylands family, its leaders faced a difficult choice: stay in Sydney and risk years inside a prison cell and losing control of the city’s gangland, or get out while the going was good.In the end, the family’s patriarch, Rafat Alameddine, chose the latter. Amid increasing police scrutiny, he left Australia for his family’s ancestral homeland of Lebanon where authorities say he has directed a sprawling criminal network, while living a life of luxury beyond the reach of the law.Rafat Alameddine, pictured in Sydney in 2019, is now based in Lebanon.Kate GeraghtyBut in the years since he and other senior figures relocated to the relative safety of the Middle East, internal conflicts stemming from a lack of local leadership have divided the Alameddine network, which has haemorrhaged once-loyal members.Now, a new threat to the Alameddine family’s supremacy – the self-proclaimed Coconut Cartel – has emerged amid an escalating conflict over control of Sydney’s lucrative drug trade.For several months, the group has publicly targeted the Alameddine network as part of an increasingly violent campaign to unseat the once-feared family from the apex of the city’s underbelly that has sparked the second major police crackdown on organised crime-related violence in less than a year.AdvertisementThis week, retaliation was swift and severe; on Tuesday morning, retired NRL star Matt Utai was ambushed outside his Greenacre home in an attack police believe was motivated by his son Iziah’s alleged links to the Coconut Cartel. The 44-year-old was shot twice and has since undergone surgery.Former NRL star Matt Utai was shot in the chest and leg in a brazen drive-by shooting in Sydney’s south-west on Tuesday morning.Kate Geraghty, Andy ZakeliWithin 24 hours, Iziah Utai’s Guildford West home had been set alight, another property linked to him had been peppered with bullets, and the Alameddine network had declared war on the 24-year-old, whom detectives this week identified as a “central” figure in the Coconut Cartel and the escalating conflict.Iziah Utai, also known as Ziggy, is wanted in relation to the murder of senior Alameddine figure Dawood Zakaria last May. He is believed to have left Australia shortly after the 32-year-old was shot during the attempted assassination of one of his associates as they drove through Sydney’s west.Iziah Utai’s Guildford West home is set alight.SCN WorldstarThe target of the attack, who cannot be named for legal reasons, survived the shooting. Lawyer Sylvan Singh was travelling in the car with the target, Zakaria and another associate, and was shot several times. Zakaria died in hospital several days after the shooting.Weeks earlier, Iziah Utai’s Merrylands barbershop was firebombed twice in two days. In June, detectives from Taskforce Falcon - established two days after Zakaria’s shooting to quell the violence linked to a conflict within the Alameddine network - arrested a 16-year-old boy over the fires.AdvertisementIn the months since, the Alameddine network has been weakened by the arrests of several senior members, including Ali Elmoubayed, whom police allege is the group’s onshore leader.Rafat Alameddine, wanted over the foiled attempted murder of gangland rival Ibrahem Hamze, still wields significant influence and is directing the group’s activities from abroad.Court documents in 2023 describe Iziah Utai as an associate of the Alameddine network. But the attacks on his family this week suggest his loyalties were short-lived.Iziah Utai, the son of former NRL star Matt Utai, is believed to have left the country last year.Facebook“F--- him and the Coconut Cartel,” a man says in a video, published by SCN Worldstar, showing Iziah Utai’s home being torched on Wednesday morning. “This is the f---ing start of the destruction, brother.”Messages sent shortly after and addressed to “the rat Ziggy Utai” left little doubt about which side of the conflict the 24-year-old had placed himself on.Video of a St Clair home linked to Iziah Utai being sprayed with bullets from a high-powered rifle was circulated shortly after.Advertisement“F--- you and the Coconut Cartel,” a person can be hea