Detectives have charged the man they allege coordinated and personally participated in the mistaken-identity kidnapping and murder of innocent Sydney grandfather Chris Baghsarian, as police continue to pursue suspected overseas figures behind the horrific crime.

Alesana Schaaf, 32, is accused of taking responsibility for carrying out a kidnap-for-ransom contract allegedly connected to an offshore organised crime network.

NSW Police allege Schaaf did not merely help organise the operation.

Detectives say he also participated in the abduction of 85-year-old Mr Baghsarian, physically detained him and was involved in taking the grandfather to a property in Dural where he was allegedly held for ransom.

The charges against Schaaf and three other men bring the total number of people charged during the Strike Force Chabot investigation to 11.

Mr Baghsarian was abducted from his North Ryde home shortly after 5am on Friday, February 13.

Police established early in the investigation that he was not the intended target.

Instead, detectives believe the elderly grandfather was taken in a catastrophic case of mistaken identity.

Images and videos of Mr Baghsarian bound and injured were circulated during the kidnapping and allegedly sent in connection with a ransom demand.

Police believe he was held at a derelict property in Dural.

His remains were found about 8am on February 24 near a golf club in Pitt Town, ending an 11-day search for the missing grandfather.

The case horrified Sydney not only because of Mr Baghsarian’s age and the violence alleged to have been inflicted on him, but because police say he had nothing to do with the criminal dispute behind the kidnapping.

Detective Superintendent Andrew Marks said investigators allege the plot began with a contract connected to an overseas organised crime network.

The contract was allegedly for the kidnapping of another elderly person.

Police allege Schaaf became aware of that contract and assumed responsibility for putting it into action.

“Whether he had direct links to the overseas people, we’re not entirely sure at this stage,” Detective Superintendent Marks said.

“But we are aware that he was in contact with someone that was directly linked to those overseas, and he allegedly took up the responsibility of actioning that contract.”

The precise structure of the alleged overseas network and the identities of those suspected of commissioning the kidnapping remain under investigation.

NSW Police confirmed Strike Force Chabot inquiries are continuing specifically to identify the alleged offshore offenders behind Mr Baghsarian’s kidnapping and murder.

Police allege Schaaf was “directly responsible” for the kidnapping and acted as its coordinator.

Investigators allege he participated in physically detaining Mr Baghsarian, taking him to the Dural address and holding him in connection with a ransom demand reported to be $50 million.

The allegations represent a major development in an investigation that has steadily expanded since Mr Baghsarian disappeared in February.

Schaaf was already in custody on unrelated matters when Strike Force Chabot detectives charged him over the grandfather’s death.

According to NSW Police, Raptor Squad officers, assisted by the Northwest Metropolitan Domestic Violence High Risk Offenders team, arrested the 32-year-old in Blacktown on February 23 as part of a separate investigation.

During a search of a vehicle, police allegedly found methylamphetamine and a pistol in his possession.

A Firearm Prohibition Order compliance check was subsequently carried out at a unit on Union Road in Penrith, where officers allegedly seized cannabis and a vehicle.

Schaaf was charged with a series of firearm and drug offences, including acquiring a firearm while subject to a prohibition order, possessing an unregistered pistol, possessing ammunition without a licence, permit or authority, supplying a prohibited drug and three counts of possessing a prohibited drug.

Those allegations remain before the courts.

Police have said they do not believe the pistol allegedly found during the unrelated investigation was used in Mr Baghsarian’s murder.

As Strike Force Chabot continued, detectives say they uncovered evidence allegedly linking Schaaf to the kidnapping and killing.

He was arrested in Lithgow at about 10.20am on Wednesday, July 8.

Police charged him with taking or detaining a person in company with intention to ransom, occasioning actual bodily harm, and murder.

He was refused bail and remanded in custody to appear at Penrith Local Court on July 17.

The charges have not been tested in court and Schaaf is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

Three other men were also charged in the latest phase of the investigation.

Imran Shahrouk, 22, was arrested at Riverstone Police Station at about 9.15am on July 9.

He was charged with taking or detaining in company with intention to ransom occasioning actual bodily harm and murder.

Police allege Shahrouk was directly involved in the kidnapping operation.

He was refused bail and remanded in custody to appear at Penrith Local Court on July 17.

Shortly before 5am on Monday, July 13, strike force detectives, assisted by the Public Order and Riot Squad, arrested 21-year-old Vonghzell Leota in Lethbridge Park.

Leota was taken to Mt Druitt Police Station and charged with being an accessory before the fact to taking or detaining a person in company with intention to ransom occasioning actual bodily harm, being an accessory before the fact to murder and possessing a prohibited drug.

He was refused bail.

Later that morning, 19-year-old Julius Pula was arrested at Mt Druitt Police Station.

He was charged with being an accessory before the fact to the alleged kidnapping and an accessory before the fact to murder.

He was also remanded in custody.

All four men are accused of offences connected to a crime police say began with a target who was not Mr Baghsarian.

The mistaken identity at the centre of the case has been one of its most disturbing elements from the beginning.

Police believe the kidnappers intended to abduct a relative of convicted armed robber turned businessman Dimitri Stepanyan.

The Baghsarian and Stepanyan families lived on the same North Ryde street and both are of Armenian heritage.

Investigators believe the alleged kidnappers went to the wrong home and took Mr Baghsarian instead.

Police say that error did not result in his release.

Mr Baghsarian was allegedly transported from North Ryde to what investigators have described as a “stronghold” or safe house at Dural.

During the desperate search for the grandfather, footage emerged showing him restrained and apparently injured.

Police made repeated public appeals for his safe return.

Investigators later alleged Mr Baghsarian died at the Dural property before his body was moved to Pitt Town.

The movement of vehicles after the kidnapping became an important part of the police investigation.

A grey Toyota Corolla linked to the case was seen in Glenorie, near Dural, on the evening of February 14, the day after Mr Baghsarian was abducted.

Police tracked the vehicle’s movements to Pitt Town Bottoms Road.

It was later seen in Westmead and was eventually found burnt out.

Forensic evidence linked to Mr Baghsarian was discovered in the vehicle, while investigators also identified links between the car and the derelict Dural property.

The evidence helped detectives reconstruct what they allege happened after the kidnapping.

Mr Baghsarian’s remains were eventually located near a golf club in Pitt Town on February 24.

The discovery transformed an urgent kidnapping investigation into a murder investigation.

Detectives from the State Crime Command’s Robbery and Serious Crime Squad have since carried out a succession of arrests, searches and public appeals under Strike Force Chabot.

Seven people had already been charged before police announced the four latest arrests.

Among those previously accused of involvement are Brendan Gorman, Codi Fuller, Deklin James Donnelly, Daniel Stevens, Gerard Andrews and Moustafa Ohrok.

Police have alleged different levels of participation among those charged.

Some are accused of direct involvement in the kidnapping and murder, while other allegations concern assistance connected to the crime or associated firearm, drug and financial offences.

The individual allegations against each accused person will have to be established separately in court.

The fact that 11 people have now been charged does not mean police believe the investigation is finished.

Detective Superintendent Marks said investigators believed they had arrested the main people involved in carrying out the offence in Australia.

But the alleged offshore component remains a major focus.

Police are trying to establish who created or authorised the alleged kidnapping contract, how instructions reached people in Sydney and the precise relationships between those suspected of involvement.

Organised crime investigations increasingly involve networks that do not operate within one city or even one country.

A person commissioning an offence can potentially be geographically separated from those accused of surveillance, transport, detention or violence.

That creates significant challenges for detectives attempting to establish chains of communication and criminal responsibility.

In the Baghsarian investigation, police have publicly alleged that an overseas organised crime network was behind the contract to kidnap another elderly person.

They have not publicly identified the alleged offshore offenders.

Nor have investigators said they have conclusively established that Schaaf dealt directly with the overseas figures.

Instead, police allege he was in contact with someone directly linked to them and took responsibility for actioning the contract.

That carefully drawn distinction will be important as the case proceeds.

The police allegation is that Schaaf coordinated and participated in the kidnapping.

It is not yet a court finding.

The same applies to every person charged under Strike Force Chabot.

Prosecutors will ultimately be required to prove the cases against the accused people through the judicial process.

For Mr Baghsarian’s family, the growing list of charges follows months of grief that began with an inexplicable disappearance from his own home.

The 85-year-old was reported kidnapped shortly after 5am on February 13.

His family then endured the circulation of disturbing footage showing him restrained and injured while police tried to locate him.

Eleven days after he vanished, his remains were found in Pitt Town.

Police have repeatedly described Mr Baghsarian as an innocent victim.

Detectives have said the case has generated outrage among investigators because an elderly man with no connection to the alleged criminal contract was taken from his home and killed.

The mistaken-identity element also exposes the indiscriminate consequences that can follow organised crime disputes.

According to the police case, the people carrying out the kidnapping did not simply target the wrong person within a criminal network.

They allegedly abducted an innocent 85-year-old grandfather because they went to the wrong address.

The discovery of that error did not save him.

That is the central horror of the case police are now placing before the courts.

The four latest arrests are significant because detectives allege they have now reached a person who occupied a coordinating role in the Australian operation.

But investigators are still looking beyond him.

NSW Police said Strike Force Chabot will continue working to identify the alleged offshore offenders behind the kidnapping and murder.

Anyone with information that could assist investigations into organised criminal activity has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

Police have stressed that information is treated confidentially and should not be reported through NSW Police social media pages.

Schaaf and several co-accused are due before Penrith Local Court on July 17.

The court proceedings will begin the long process of testing allegations that have emerged from one of Sydney’s most confronting alleged organised crime cases of 2026.

For now, police say 11 people have been charged.

They allege the coordinator of the kidnapping has been identified and placed before the courts.

But the investigation into those suspected of setting the deadly contract in motion from overseas is continuing.

At the centre of it all remains Chris Baghsarian: an 85-year-old grandfather police say was never meant to be targeted, taken from the wrong North Ryde home in the early hours of the morning and killed in an alleged ransom plot intended for somebody else.