The state's top judge has given the go-ahead for a mega-trial of up to a dozen members of the Brothers 4 Life crime gang for a series of murders, shootings, drug dealing, extortion and bashings that terrorised western Sydney in 2012 and 2013.
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Chief Justice Tom Bathurst has approved the Crown's application for an all-encompassing trial to be held in the Supreme Court to deal with the hundreds of charges against the allegedly violent and dangerous gang members.
The case will be heard by a jury and is expected to go for at least six months, making it one of the largest and most complex trials held in NSW legal history.
Weeks of pre-trial hearings are also expected, as some gang members including Navid Khalili have rolled over and become Crown witnesses.
Khalili has pleaded guilty to murdering construction industry standover man Joe Antoun at his Strathfield home in front of his two young daughters in December 2013.
In November last year police declared the gang had been defeated with all key members behind bars or allegedly killed by their own during an internal war between the Blacktown and Bankstown chapters, which was sparked by disagreements over drug dealing, territory and extortions.
The charges relate to shootings in Wentworthville, Eagle Vale, Winston Hills, Bankstown, Guilford and Greenacre and the shooting of a 13-year-old girl in Blacktown between July and November 2013.
Several accused including leader Farhad Qaumi and his brothers Jamil and Mumtaz are also charged over the murder of Mahmoud Hamzy, the cousin of rival gang leader Mohammed Hamzy, in Revesby Heights in October 2013.
The sole female accused, Amanda Maree Crowe is charged with two counts of murder, directing the activities of a criminal group, shoot at with intent to murder, solicit to murder, conspiracy to murder and causing wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
She has been described by police in court documents as an unlikely right-hand woman to Farhad Qaumi.
Qaumi was appointed "general" by gang founder and Supermax inmate Bassam Hamzy in 2012.
Defence counsel for several of the accused have previously told the court they intend to apply for separate trials.
On Thursday Justice Peter Johnson said the mega-trial application had been approved by the chief justice on the proviso that those accused of lesser crimes who succeed in getting a separate trial are prosecuted in the lower District Court.
Trials run in the District Court are cheaper, partly because the Legal Aid Commission pays defence counsel and lawyers lower rates than in the Supreme Court.
