Marked underworld figure Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim shot dead

Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim, the Melbourne underworld’s most hunted man, has been shot dead in Preston.

A police source and two underworld sources confirmed his death to The Age.

Victoria Police has been contacted for comment.

The 32-year-old gangland figure-turned-boxer recently went “underground” to escape a $1 million murder contract on his head.

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Abdulrahim, who lived under death threats for years, went into hiding in May 2024 after only narrowly escaping an ambush outside his northern suburbs home, where gunmen shot at him 17 times.

His Lalor home, shot up in another drive-by and then later firebombed, has been left abandoned and unlivable.

Abdulrahim’s Instagram account was littered with false trails, including a photo that was purportedly posted from Lebanon with the message: “Feels good to be in motherland” when he was actually seen partying at a Melbourne bar.

In September, he appeared briefly to be working as a bodyguard for Russian mixed martial arts star Khabib Nurmagomedov at an event in Kuala Lumpur, according to a social media post about the MMA star.