Police offer $250k reward to find offshore crime boss - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Pele posing with a supercar overseas as police seek to bring him back to Australia. (Supplied)
NSW Police are offering $250,000 to anyone who can help locate wanted crime boss Anthony Pele.
Mr Pele, 25, is alleged to lead the self-proclaimed Coconut Cartel responsible for a wave of violence in Sydney's underworld.
The fugitive is believed to be in Vietnam, fleeing the country in 2023 after mistakenly shooting dead an innocent bystander.
NSW Police have offered a $250,000 reward to help locate an offshore crime boss allegedly orchestrating the violence plaguing Sydney's streets.
Anthony Pele fled Australia in 2023 and is considered by police to be one of the key figures coordinating attacks on Sydney's Alameddine crime family from overseas.
Mr Pele, 25, is alleged to be leading the self-proclaimed Coconut Cartel, a Pacific Islander gang that takes its name from a historical slur against Pasifika people.
Detectives allege the group is behind a string of attacks on rival crime groups, many of which have been filmed and posted to social media over the past year.
Police believe Mr Pele fled the country not long after allegedly shooting dead Ahmad Al-Azzam in July 2023 at Greenacre, in a case of mistaken identity.
Court documents claim Mr Pele was tasked with guarding the home of a Haouchar crime family associate when he mistook Mr Al-Azzam's car for that of a rival crime network and fired multiple shots.
Anthony Pele, in a post from a gym while on the run from police. (Supplied)
"I acted on my own … if this cocksucker is sitting opposite your mum's house … I had to do it," Pele is allegedly heard saying on a recording device after the shooting.
Since leaving Australia, his name has emerged in cases involving drug thefts and large-scale narcotic importations.
The ABC reported in February that Mr Pele, while overseas in December 2023, was behind a kidnap plot that was set to score associates $1 billion worth of cocaine before it was foiled.
Innocent bystander Ahmad Al-Azzam was shot dead. (Supplied)
In May, the ABC revealed Mr Pele's globe-trotting taunts to police and underworld adversaries on social media while on the run from authorities.
Police believe Mr Pele is currently in Vietnam.
Speaking to reporters this morning, Police Minister Yasmin Catley described Mr Pele as a "horrific criminal".
"Antony Pele is alleged to be a horrific criminal here in NSW and part of the organised crime gangs and organised crime we are seeing in Sydney," Police Minister Yasmin Catley said.
Police Minister Yasmin Catley announces the $250,000 reward to find and extradite Anthony Pele. (ABC News)
"This reward is significant. It means that someone out there, and we know it, knows something and now we want them to tell the police or indeed they can call CrimeStoppers."
NSW Police State Crime Commander Brett Greentree said there were now "250,000 reasons to come forward".
"For more than three years detectives from state crime have worked tirelessly with our international partners to locate and apprehend him. We know the loyalties in criminal groups change.
"And to Anthony Pele my message is really simple we will not stop, time will not make a difference, this will not go away, we will bring you back and ensure you face justice in NSW."
