Despite having lived in Melbourne for nearly three decades I’d never heard of Macchour Chaouk until he was gunned down last week in his Brooklyn home in Melbourne’s west.

Not knowing who Chaouk was, I paid little attention to the initial reports of his death. Some guy I’ve never heard of died in one of Melbourne’s trashy western suburbs gets a big yawn from me and it’s onto the next news story.

Despite the irrelevance of this Chaouk guy, coverage of his death has remained persistent in the media and yesterday climaxed with the Chaouk family basically telling the media to sod off.

Ok guys, now you’ve got my full attention – so let’s see what you’ve got to say.

A statement read out by Chaouk’s nephew on behalf of the Chaouk family declared;

We are Macchour’s family and contrary to all media beat up, would like to declare to our fellow Australian’ that;

1. There is gross exaggeration in dealing with this sad event and its coverage. For example, using “underworld killings”, “war in the suburbs” and “vicious gun culture”.

2. We want to strongly believe that the Australian justice system and police will secure the rights of the innocent victim and his family in bringing the killer(s) of this terrible crime to justice.


Curious as to what warranted such ‘gross exaggeration‘ I decided to have a look into Macchour Chaouk’s history.

Turns out he’s not so ‘innocent’ after all.

Chaouk’s history reads like any other criminal. Man starts work in Australia in honest job, man gets sick of honest work, man turns to crime, man makes bucketloads of money,  man makes lots of enemies and finally, man winds up dead.

The Herald Sun puts it more succinctly;

In 1975, Macchour Chaouk was charged with his first offence — assault with a weapon after he beat another man with metal bars at a factory.

In 1983 he was convicted of trafficking heroin, and two years later was charged with assaulting police.

And his crimes were not just restricted to Victoria. In 1984 he was charged with assault and burglary by NSW police.

In 1985 he was incapacitated by two motor accidents, and has not worked since.

In 1986, Macchour Chaouk was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, and spent years on anti-depressants.

He was charged with recklessly causing serious injury after beating a man over an allegedly stolen bike in 1991.

In 2000, Chaouk was sentenced to five years in prison for trafficking in heroin.


Hardly a model citizen and from the sounds of it as far from the ‘innocent victim’ label the Chaouk family are bandying about.

And as for the Chaouk family themselves, in October 2004 Victoria’s Organised Crime Squad launched Operation Vapor because they feared ‘for the safety of the (Chaouk) family’s enemies‘.

Within six months, investigators on Vapor had gathered sufficient evidence to lay a number of charges against some family members and their associates.

The charges included attempted murder, false imprisonment, drug offences and serious assaults, as well as perverting the course of justice.


Right. Well Macchouk’s family sound like a bunch of swell chaps too.

Regardless of whether or not Macchour was innocent or involved in anything illegal leading up to his death (indirectly or otherwise), it’s clear that money would most likely have been funneling to him from somewhere within his family. How this money was earned is most likely only known between those directly involved in its earning and the police.

For this reason I find the plea to their ‘fellow Australian citizens‘ by the Chaouk family a bit of a hard pill to swallow. Yes it’s sad when a family member dies but expecting the rest of the country to sympathise with you is a bit much.

From one fellow Australian to a family seemingly full of criminals;

Let’s not pretend Macchour was some kind of model citizen now that he’s dead. Obviously he and the rest of his family were/are involved in shady drug business and as a society it’s more then likely for the greater good that he’s gone.

Was Macchour murdered? Yes. Did his grandkids need to witness it? No. Was he an innocent victim? Hardly.

You only need to look at the bikies and associated criminals that rocked up to his funeral to decide what type of character Macchouk was.

God knows what mess he was involved in this time but a random killing this was not. Get caught up in organised crime and this is the kind of crap your family can expect to happen to you. Moreso if they themselves are also involved in the ‘family business’.

I’ve got no idea who killed Macchour Chaouk but hope that this doesn’t start another wave of stupid underground killings. If for nothing else then the fact that I can’t bear to put up with another season of Channel 9′s Underbelly.

Sadly, the only tragedy here is that Macchour’s death most likely paves the way for some other kingpin to take his place in Melbourne’s drug empire.

No doubt we’ll hear about the great tragedy and loss of an innocent life claims from their family when they get taken out as well.

Such is life Macchour, such is life.