By The Times of Australia
NSW Police hunt fugitive accused in Sydney gangland execution after Lebanon flight
NSW Police have put a face to one of the names still hanging over Sydney’s long-running underworld war: Rabeih Baltagi, a 30-year-old man wanted on a murder warrant over the 2022 killing of former bikie Yusuf Nazlioglu.
The new image matters because Baltagi has been out of sight for almost four years. Police believe he left Australia for Lebanon just six days after detectives searched his home in connection with Nazlioglu’s death. He has not been seen since.
Nazlioglu was shot dead in June 2022 in the car park of an apartment block at Rhodes, in Sydney’s inner west. He had recently been acquitted over the murder of former Comanchero boss Mick Hawi. Police have alleged the hit on Nazlioglu was part of a retaliation plot tied to stolen luxury cars.
Court proceedings linked to the case have heard allegations that Baltagi and another man were paid $300,000 to carry out the killing. Police have also previously advanced the theory that Baltagi was either the shooter or the getaway driver. He has not been convicted over the murder, and the allegations remain to be tested if he is brought before a court.
The case sits inside a broader and uglier count. Nazlioglu’s death was reported as the fourteenth fatal gangland shooting since Sydney’s underworld conflict flared in 2020. That toll has since climbed to 40.
Two men have already been found guilty of murder for their roles in the plot to kill Nazlioglu. Baltagi remains overseas, according to police, and has now been named among nine of NSW’s most wanted fugitives.
State Crime Commander Assistant Commissioner Scott Cook warned that anyone helping wanted men avoid police could be committing a serious offence. He said NSW authorities were working with federal and international law enforcement partners on the process to bring fugitives back to face the allegations against them.
The hard edge of this story is not just that a wanted man allegedly slipped the net. It is that the machinery of Sydney’s gangland violence keeps throwing up old names, offshore trails and unfinished files years after the gunfire stops. For police, Baltagi is now one of the men they say can help close a bloody chapter. For the courts, if he is returned, the question will be narrower and colder: what can be proved.
Source: ABC News reporting and NSW Police statements. Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.