A producer for YouTube channel FriendlyJordies says he fears for his safety after a Four Corners reporter allegedly passed on threats made by a notorious organized crime family.
Kristo Langker, who works with FriendlyJordies creator Jordan Shanks, says he received the warnings through ABC investigative reporter Mahmood Fazal.
Fazal has strongly denied doing anything wrong, and the ABC – which describes his work as “extremely thought-provoking, impactful and important public interest journalism – stays true to its reporting.
The Walkley award winner, 33, insists all warnings issued by the crime family were aimed at him and it was his life that was in danger.
Langker was so concerned about the situation that the 23-year-old made a statement to the New South Wales Police Organized Crime Squad, seen by Daily Mail Australia.
According to this statement, Langker claims to have told Fazal in a telephone conversation: “You are a Four Corners reporter. You have to decide what you are.
“You’re not one of them.”
A producer for YouTube channel FriendlyJordies says he fears for his safety after Four Corners reporter Mahmood Fazal allegedly passed on threats made by a notorious organized crime family. Fazal is photographed on assignment for the ABC program
Fazal is a former biker who was once the sergeant-at-arms of a Mongolian chapter and has since turned his attention to telling stories about crime, violence, prison and terrorism.
He was made a permanent member of the Four Corners investigative team alongside journalists including Louise Milligan, Mark Willacy and Angus Grigg last August.
Fazal directed Four Corners episodes Cocaine Nation in June 2023 and Meth Highway in April this year, both of which explored the trade and use of illegal drugs.
These investigations relied largely on criminal contacts Fazal said were willing to talk to him because he was once part of their world.
Fazal’s family fled Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in the late 1980s and settled in Victoria where, as a young man, he fell into a life of crime and drugs.
He once explained in an article written for Walkley magazine in May 2018 how his membership in the Mongols and the gang’s “bare-knuckle meth policy” helped him get sober.
“I naturally acclimated to the violence and respected the penal code, where your word counts,” he wrote.
Kristo Langker, who works with FriendlyJordies creator Jordan Shanks, says warnings he received through ABC investigative reporter Mahmood Fazal made him fear for his safety. Fazal is pictured when he was a Mongol
Langker became involved with Fazal through his production of a video which was uploaded to the FriendlyJordies channel in August 2022.
This video used photographs of a notorious rapper and other alleged crime family associates that had first appeared in a Rolling Stone article written by Fazal a year earlier.
In his statement to police, Langker claimed that Fazal told him over lunch in late August or early September 2022 that he was receiving threats over the video.
Fazal said he met with ABC management to arrange for his police protection “due to (the crime family’s) alleged involvement,” Langker told detectives on January 19.
“Mahmood allegedly said, ‘I was talking to people involved in organized crime,’ and ‘You need to watch your back,'” Langker said in his statement.
Fazal also reportedly said: “Your name is on the lips of serious people”, “I am terrified” and “I am gravely concerned for my safety”.
Kristo Langker was so concerned about threats Mahmood Fazal allegedly made to him that he made a statement to the New South Wales Police Organized Crime Squad. Langker is pictured on the right
Langker told police that Fazal asked him on January 11 this year to remove the FriendlyJordies video “because there were people threatening his life.”
“He said that ‘if the video wasn’t released, something very bad could happen to him,'” Langker told police. “He made it clear that Jordan and I were also in danger.”
Langker said he met Fazal later that day outside a lawyer’s office in Sydney’s CBD, where Fazal allegedly again pleaded for the video to be taken down.
On January 17, Langker had an eight-minute telephone conversation with Fazal.
“Mahmood said, ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this about yourself. It’s me who is being threatened.”‘ Langker said in his statement to police.
‘Mahmood said: ‘I had a guy who had just come out of prison for attempted murder, tell me basically what I should do. I’m the one under threat here, not you.’
Fazal’s family fled Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in the late 1980s and settled in Victoria where, as a young man, he fell into a life of crime and drugs. Fazal is depicted as a Mongol
Langker told police that Fazal said he met face to face with one of the men who made the alleged threats and was warned to watch his back.
“I said, ‘Why were you hanging out with them?'” Langker said.
“He said, ‘I wasn’t, I was called to a meeting.’
“I said, ‘You’re a Four Corners reporter, you have to decide what you are. You are not one of them. Why would you do that? “
In a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald, which first reported the alleged threats, Fazal accused the publication of attempting to stereotype him because of his ethnicity.
“The connections you seek to make between me and the events are serious and which I find deeply offensive,” he told the newspaper.
“I am troubled that you appear to have relied on the ethnicity of the people you are referring to to imply illegal conduct on my part. This appears to be an attempt to stereotype me.
“If you have credible information to suggest that I have engaged in illegal behavior (which I have not), I suggest that you provide this information to the police so that they can deal with it properly instead than publishing unverified allegations in the newspaper.’
Fazal (left) directed Four Corners episodes Cocaine Nation in June 2023 and Meth Highway in April this year, both of which explored the trade and use of illegal drugs.
Daily Mail Australia attempted to contact Fazal, but an ABC spokeswoman said she understood he did not wish to make further statements.
“Mahmood Fazal does extremely thought-provoking, impactful and important public interest journalism for the ABC and ABC stands behind his reporting,” she said.
“For obvious reasons, the ABC will not comment on threats to the safety of our employees, the steps we are taking for their safety or any dealings we may have with the police.”
“Mahmood says he informed his police contacts of this situation every step of the way.”
New South Wales Police told the Herald their investigation into Langker’s reported threats had stalled because Fazal was reluctant to make a statement.
FriendlyJordies’ video was removed in February.
Fazal won the Walkley Foundation’s 2020 Media Diversity Australia Award for the podcast No Gangsters in Paradise, which examined the gang warfare between the Darwiche and Razzak families in Sydney in the early 2000s.
His writing has previously appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, VICE, The Saturday Paper, The Monthly and Rolling Stone.
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