Teenager faces firearms charges

A man has been charged and his father and brother arrested over a drive-by shooting
- the latest in a series of violent incidents involving two alleged Melbourne crime
families.
Omar Chaouk, 18, will face court on Friday on eight firearms charges following his
arrest in a dawn raid by dozens of armed police on his family home in Melbourne's
west.
Chaouk's out-of-sessions court hearing on Thursday night was held behind closed
doors for safety reasons after he reacted angrily to seeing the media waiting
outside the Melbourne Custody Centre.
His father Macchour Chaouk, 64, and brother Waleed, 36, were arrested on Thursday
morning but later released pending further inquiries.
The Chaouk family's hostility toward police goes back to the fatal shooting of
another son, Mohamed Chaouk, 29, by a police officer during a raid at the same home
in 2005.
The Chaouks' Brooklyn house was raided in response to a shooting last month in which
18-year-old Sam Haddara was shot in the face while in his parked car in nearby
Altona.
Another of the Chaouk family, Matwali Chaouk, 26, was charged with firearms offences
following raids on the house on June 8, two days after Haddara was shot.
Police dug up the garden and searched the roof at the home on Thursday, seizing a
loaded shotgun and a loaded handgun.
About 40 armed officers from the Santiago Taskforce, Special Operations Group,
Operational Response Unit and local police stood outside the house to stop any
violence.
A group of about 10 young men congregated outside the property all morning,
threatening police while also abusing and throwing coins at the media.
Waleed Chaouk clashed repeatedly with a plainclothes policewoman, abusing her and
threatening to assault her before being restrained by a relative.
Superintendent Doug Fryer said police thought there could be hostility and the large
number of police involved had been justified.
"That's why we planned the operation the way that we did, to ensure that there
wasn't any violence," he told reporters outside the house.
"To ensure that there wasn't any aggression, certainly by bystanders, family members
or indeed the occupants of the house."
Sam Haddara survived last month's shooting but was seriously injured and had to have
plastic surgery and treatment to restore several teeth that were blown out.
He is a cousin of Mohamed Haddara, 28, who was killed a year earlier in a drive-by
shooting. There has been a series of tit-for-tat violent incidents involving
shootings between three alleged Lebanese crime families, the Chaouk, Haddara and
Kheir families.
A relative of the Chaouks, Ahmad Hablas, 21, of Altona North, was arrested and
charged with Mohamed Haddara's death last week.
He has admitted to killing his former friend, Haddara, but claims he acted in self
defence.
Hablas told court on Monday he fears he will be killed by Haddara's family.
Supt Fryer said that despite the violence, which has sparked worries about a new
'gang war', he believed police had the situation under control.
Santiago was set up in October 2008 to look into the criminal activities of a range
of groups, including several Lebanese families, allegedly involved in drugs and arms
dealings, shootings, abductions, attempted murder, bashing and torturing and money
laundering.
Omar Chaouk was remanded in custody and will appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court
on Friday morning.