An arrest warrant has been issued for the accused leader of a major Sydney crime gang three years after an alleged plot to kill a rival was foiled.
Rafat Alameddine is wanted for his alleged role in the August 2021 plan to murder Ibrahem Hamze, who was spared when police tried to stop a stolen Mercedes in North Sydney that investigators believe was to be used for the crime.
The vehicle sped off and was abandoned nearby before two armed men allegedly carjacked another vehicle.
NSW Police on Thursday said arrest warrants had been sought for Alameddine and an associate John Bayssari, both aged 33, on a charge of conspiracy to murder.
They are thought to be in Lebanon.
Anyone who sees either man or has information about where they can be found is urged by police not to approach them but to immediately call triple zero.
Several people have already been charged and are before the courts over the alleged plot to kill Hamze, whose older brother Bilal was shot dead as he left a restaurant in the Sydney city centre in June 2021.
The incidents formed part of a long-running feud between the Alameddine and Hamze - or Hamzy - crime gangs that led to several other deaths, including two brothers and a cousin of jailed crime boss Bassam Hamzy.
Alameddine, who police accuse of leading the gang of the same name, and Bayssari, are also wanted over the deaths of a father and son who were killed in a daylight shooting on a suburban street.
Arrest warrants for two counts of murder were issued in May over the October 2021 shootings of Toufik and Salim Hamze, who were targeted while sitting in a ute at Guildford, in Sydney's west, during the spate of tit-for-tat attacks.
Multiple people remain before the courts over the double killing.
