Sydney’s gangland nerves were on full display on Sunday morning as mourners filed into Lakemba Mosque to farewell Lorenzo Lemalu, a day after a gunman sprayed bullets into the wrong funeral venue in the city’s south-west.
Lemalu, 24, was shot dead in Ho Chi Minh City last month. NSW Police believed he led the self-styled Coconut Cartel, a group tied to a running feud with rival Sydney crime figures. His body was returned to Australia this week, and by Sunday the funeral had become more than a family farewell. It was a security problem.
ABC News reported that dozens of mourners attended the service at Lakemba Mosque under a heavy police presence. Several police vehicles were seen outside while mourners came and went quietly, many covering their faces as cameras waited nearby.
The tension followed Saturday’s shooting at Diamond Venues in Punchbowl, where Lemalu’s funeral had reportedly been advertised before the service was shifted. Police were called there about 2:20pm after several shots were fired into the building from an unknown SUV. No injuries were reported, though one person was working in a connected office at the time.
A short time later, officers were called to nearby Gillian Place, where an abandoned car was found on fire. Police set up two crime scenes and said early inquiries suggested the shooting and the burned-out vehicle were linked.
The failed hit on the venue matters because it shows how jumpy the city remains after Lemalu’s killing overseas. Vietnamese authorities have arrested two Samoan men over the Ho Chi Minh City shooting, and state media there has alleged the pair tracked Lemalu before the attack. Back in Sydney, police sources told the ABC they were bracing for reprisals.
That is the hard edge of Sunday’s funeral. The shots at Punchbowl did not hit their apparent target, and no one was hurt, but the message landed. A funeral notice was enough to draw gunfire. A changed venue was enough to bring police to a mosque. And the killing of a young crime figure thousands of kilometres away is now spilling back into Sydney streets.
Sources: ABC News reports published June 6 and June 7, 2026.