John Ibrahim is not known as "Teflon" John for nothing.
In the past, the 46-year-old Ibrahim has quipped he has much in common with TV's famous crime boss Tony Soprano, who spent much of his time negotiating the dangerous shoals of the underworld and sorting out endless conflicts created by family members.
And so it has been for Ibrahim. For the past 25 years, Ibrahim has been the titular head of both Kings Cross and his own troublesome crime family.
Older bother Sam is a crazed, violent, cocaine addict and former bikie boss, whose latest stint behind bars is for supplying guns.
Younger brother Fadi, who survived an assassination attempt in 2009, has been working in the life-shortening profession of loan sharking. While his favourite brother Michael has spent time in jail for manslaughter.
But John Hausam Ibrahim, once described as the "life blood" of the seedy Kings Cross drug world, has an unblemished record except for a minor assault while a teenager.
"I'm Mr Legit ... but I'm definitely no saint," said Ibrahim in his recently published memoir The Last King of the Cross.
"I have been subjected to investigations, taskforces, inquiries, secret hearings and Crime Commission negotiations, and every time I get clean air it starts all over again," he wrote.
Ibrahim's "clean air" was mightily fouled on Tuesday when police raided his cliff-side mansion at Dover Heights and arrested members of his family. It's understood he was at home during the raid.
His son Daniel, who recently left the Australian Army, was nabbed, as was his girlfriend Sarah "Budgie" Budge. His bothersome brothers Michael and Fadi were arrested in Dubai.
While search warrants were executed at his house, no charges were laid against Ibrahim.
With an uncanny knack of changing with the times, Ibrahim has moved from sleazy strip clubs to upmarket eateries and bars.
His empire now consists of a multimillion dollar property portfolio, much of hidden through front people.
His secret purchase of the Swanson Hotel, in Erskineville, for a reputed $7.5 million is about to be finalised as is his acquisition of Balmain's Town Hall Hotel, for $8.5 million.
He already owns much of Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, as well as a string of other licensed venues in the Cross as well as nearby Oxford Street.
George Street, Dover Heights, has become an Ibrahim enclave. Apart from Ibrahim's impressive pile, his son Daniel lives nearby and Skye Fuller, the mother of his four-year-old daughter, lives a few houses down.
In 2007, Chelsea Ventures, a company named after his then girlfriend, Chelsea Mitchell, paid $2.49 million for an apartment in the street.
Listed at that address, is Ibrahim's loyal lieutenant Margaret Staltaro.
Ms Staltaro, 44, is Ibrahim's financial controller and such is her power in the empire she is known as the "female Tongan Sam". This is a reference to the family's feared enforcer, Semi "Tongan Sam" Ngata.
Ms Staltaro's private company is recorded as having paid $4.1 million buying 32 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, in July 2014. Only three months later her company paid a further $5.2 million for 28 Bayswater Road.
More than a decade ago Ibrahim was charged with threatening a witness who was to give evidence against his older brother Sam.
The police bail submission described Ibrahim as "a major organised crime figure" who was "the subject of 546 police intelligence reports in relation to his involvement in drugs, organised crime and association with outlaw motorcycle gangs".
But the charges against Ibrahim were dropped, as was a 1997 charge, also relating to threatening a witness.
And while his former boss-turned-rival, Bill Bayeh, spent 15 years in the clink for his drug dealing, Ibrahim has been free to forge his way ahead as a successful nightclub boss.
With his artfully highlighted hair and gleaming teeth, Ibrahim frequently holds court at a coffee shop across the road from his headquarters in Bayswater Road. In his memoir, Ibrahim describes himself as a survivor who has had to endure endless scrutiny while attempting to distance himself from his past.
But the presence of watchful bodyguards loitering not-so-discreetly at nearby tables, keeping a lookout for their boss, is an indication that Ibrahim has not thrown off his past.
"So no more crime or grey area for me. Well, no crime. The grey part is harder to lose," wrote Ibrahim.
