Australia’s cocaine gang war spilt into Vietnam after a gunman killed 24-year-old Coconut Cartel figure Lorenzo Lemalu outside a Ho Chi Minh City restaurant.
Vietnamese authorities detained two Samoan men near the Cambodian border within 72 hours of the May 21 shooting. State media said the suspects claimed an overseas figure directed the attack.
The shooting took place in Vietnam, whose capital is Hanoi. However, its impact reached Sydney, Australia, where police are confronting a wider drug-linked turf war.
Another alleged associate suffered serious injuries in the attack. Video from the scene showed bystanders dragging Lemalu into the restaurant as people tried to save him.
New South Wales Police said organised crime in the Australian state had become global. Assistant Commissioner Scott Cook warned that police would pursue offshore crime figures.
Meanwhile, police and criminologists linked the violence to a feud between the Coconut Cartel and the Alameddine crime family.
Sydney’s western suburbs have seen shootings, arson attacks, kidnappings and intimidation.
Police said offshore operators often recruit young offenders for paid attacks. Detective Superintendent Jason Box said teenagers and young women had joined surveillance and murder plots.
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Moreover, Australia and New Zealand remain highly profitable cocaine markets. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said 4.2% of people aged 15 to 64 in those countries used cocaine in 2024.
Traffickers use Pacific routes from the Americas to reach Oceania. They often move shipments through Fiji, the Solomon Islands and other island states.
This week, the Australian Federal Police seized 2.7 metric tonnes of cocaine in western Sydney. Officials called it the country’s largest cocaine seizure.
Police said officers found the drugs in plastic tubs beneath shipping containers at a Londonderry property. Investigators linked the haul to an organised crime plot targeting Australia’s east coast.
