Police arrested Rabii Abram Zahabe, 24, on unrelated charges when he was in Sydney's CBD on Wednesday.
Victoria Police homicide squad detectives then travelled to NSW and charged him with murder, months after Preston was shot dead in September, 2023.
Victoria Police at the Melbourne cafe where Gavin Preston was gunned down in September, 2023. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)
Zahabe, from Yagoona in Sydney's southwest, fronted Bathurst Local Court on Thursday afternoon where police successfully applied to extradite him to Victoria.
He was expected to arrive in Melbourne about midday on Friday before fronting Melbourne Magistrates Court.
On October 25, 2023, another man - Jaeden Tito - was arrested at his Bradbury home in Sydney's southwest and charged with murder over Preston's fatal shooting.
The 23-year-old, who was not known to police before the shooting, was taken to Melbourne to face further charges.
Preston, 50, was killed and a 26-year-old South Morang man he was dining with critically injured after shots were fired outside the Sweet Lulus cafe in Keilor Village, in Melbourne's northwest, on September 9.
Security camera footage showed a hooded gunman dressed in black running from the passenger side door of a black SUV and firing several shots from a handgun at Preston, who fell to the ground.
Preston died at the scene. The other man underwent emergency surgery on gunshot wounds to his stomach.
The injured victim started to run away after seeing the gunman approach, as other diners fled and hit the deck as shots rang out.
No one else was injured in the incident.
Preston was released from Barwon Prison in February after serving 11 years for defensive homicide over the fatal 2012 shooting of 41-year-old Adam Khoury, a Melbourne ice dealer.
He suffered nine stab wounds, several cuts to his face and head and a 15cm cut down his right jawline during an attack in the maximum security prison's exercise yard in 2014.
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