Crime gangs are registering cars in the names of innocent Sydney residents before using them to carry out murders.
NSW Police suspect this method was used in the shooting death of underworld crime boss Bilal Hamze, 34, in Sydney's CBD in June last year.
Mr Hamze was the cousin of notorious Brothers 4 Life gang leader and murderer Bassam Hamzy, who is locked up in Goulburn Supermax jail.
Police have released new CCTV footage of a Ford Territory, Mercedes sedan and a Honda Odyssey they believe are linked to his murder.
Detectives have now identified the Mercedes as being the same one used in an alleged aborted hit on Hamze's relative, Ibrahem Hamze, two months later.
Homicide Squad boss Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said investigations had uncovered how organised crime networks were obtaining these vehicles through "enterprising criminal deception".
He said gangsters buy vehicles in cash from online marketplaces, before using stolen identities of unsuspecting victims to register them.
He warned that suspicious activity related to a person's identity could start as a "minor fraud issue" but end with it being used in a murder.
"Unfortunately, with these types of frauds, anyone can be a victim," Detective Superintendent Doherty said.
"It's just a means to an end to facilitate a criminal enterprise."
He said detectives were seeking to find who obtained these vehicles for the gangs, and believes the public can help.
"Obtaining these vehicles is one thing, but using them to facilitate a murder or a conspiracy to murder makes them liable," he said.
"We're looking at accessory to murder sort of offences — before, during or after.
"To my way of thinking they're as liable and as complicit as if they pulled the trigger."
The new footage shows several vehicles visiting an apartment block car park on Walker St in North Sydney, where Ibrahem Hamze was living, from July 25 last year.
It has led police to believe they were intending to kill him earlier than an alleged failed attempt on August 14, 2021.
Three men remain before the courts charged with conspiracy to murder.
Detective Superintendent Doherty said police believed that each time the vehicles were at the apartment complex "the people inside these cars intended to murder their target".
Police have recovered the Honda Odyssey, and the Mercedes seen in the CCTV visiting the Walker Street building.
They have also seized a second Mercedes wagon and an Audi used in the murder of Bilal Hamze.
Police say they are still searching for the Ford Territory, captured several times on footage in North Sydney.
Detective Superintendent Doherty said the Honda and Ford were both registered in the names of innocent people.
“The Honda and Ford were fraudulently registered, and we ask anyone who may’ve received information from the Roads and Maritime Services that any vehicle they do not own has been registered in their name, to report it to police," Detective Superintendent Doherty said.
“This is a shift in the [modus operandi] used by these types of criminal syndicates, and as the Ford Territory has yet to be located, I would urge anyone with relevant information to come forward."
