Organized crime in Israel

The major crime groups are the Abergils, the Abutbuls, the Alperons, theDumranis, the Shirazis, the Amir Molnar and Zeev Rosenstein syndicates.^[2] The illegal activities they are engaged in include:

Operating casinos and other forms of gambling inside and outside Israel
Car theft and smuggling
Prostitution
Drug trafficking
Human trafficking
Money Laundering
Protection and extortion rackets
Loan sharking
Drugs and arms dealing
Fencing stolen goods
Diamond smuggling^{[citation needed]}

According to Israel’s former Police Commissioner David Cohen, Israeli crime organizations had penetrated the formal economic sector and local governments, and “equipped themselves with large quantities of combat means explosives and arms.” In a mob war starting in the early 2000s between the crime families, several crime bosses were killed. It also cost the life of innocent bystanders.^[3] The Iakhbal is the Israeli Special Police Unit that fights organized crime.

Ex-Soviet organized crime[edit]

Ex-Soviet organized crime in Israel began with the mass immigration of Russian Jews to Israel in 1989.^[4] The Russian mafia saw Israel as an ideal place tolaunder money, as Israel’s banking system was designed to encourage aliyah, the immigration of Jews, and the accompanying capital. Following the trend of globalfinancial deregulation, Israel had also implemented legislation aimed at easing the movement of capital. Combined with the lack of anti-money laundering legislation, “Russian” organised crime found it an easy place to transfer ill-gotten gains. In 2005, police estimated that Russian organised crime had laundered between $5 and 10 billion in the fifteen years since the end of the Soviet Union. Even non-Jewish criminals such as Sergei Mikhailov sought to get Israeli passports, using fake Jewish documentation.^[5]

Russian and Ukrainian Jewish criminals have also been able to set up networks in the USA, following the large migration of Russian Jews to New York and Miami, but also in European cities such as Berlin and Antwerp. Many of these Russiangangsters have Israeli passports as well.^[6] Infamous Russian-Jewish mobsters include Marat Balagula, Evsei Agron and their respective criminal gangs in theUSA. In Europe Semyon Mogilevich and Boris Nayfeld are well-known crime bosses, among others. Soviet-Jewish criminal groups in the USA are involved inracketeering, prostitution, drug trafficking, extortion, and gasoline fraud as well as murder.^[7]

Georgian-Jewish organized crime[edit]

Outside of said criminal organizations consisting of Russian and Ukrainian Jews, family-based organized crime groups were formed among Georgian Jewishimmigrants as well.^[8] Georgian-Jewish crime families have been able to expand their operations to Western European cities such as Antwerp. They are involved incounterfeiting, fraud, money laundering, drug trafficking, weapon trafficking,prostitution and armed robbery. Such was the case with the Georgian-Jewish Melikhov clan in Antwerp.^[9]^[10]

North-African crime families[edit]

The immigration of Egyptian and Moroccan Jews to Israel and their settlement in the more impoverished neighborhoods led to the creation of crime families among Maghrebi Jews as well.^[11] This is evident in the fact that a large number of Israeliorganized criminals have fled to Morocco in recent years.^[12] Israeli crime families of Moroccan Jewish descent expanded their operations to Europe and the USA, especially with their involvement in drug trafficking.^[13] Some of Israel’s more well-known crime families are of North African Jewish descent: the Abergil crime familyas well as the Abutbul and Domrani clans are originally from Morocco,^[14] theAlperon clan came from Egypt, and the Shirazi clan from Iran.

Palestinian organized crime[edit]

Apart from the largely ex-Soviet and North African Jewish crime families,Palestinian organized crime groups (a fair amount are in fact of Bedouin descent) were formed as well. It is alleged that several Palestinian villages are home to local crime families,^[15] the most famous of them being the Doghmushclan.^{[citation needed]} Palestinian crime families are involved in extortion, drug andweapon trafficking, fraud as well as money laundering, often in cooperation with their Jewish counterparts.^[16] Palestinian criminals are internationally active as well.^{[citation needed]} An example was the criminal gang around Moussa Aliyan inNew York whose main business was the importation of heroin.^[17]

In the United States[edit]

In the 1980s Israelis set up a crime syndicate headed by Johnny Attias in New York, dubbed the “Israeli mafia”. It pulled off the biggest gold heist in the history of Manhattan’s jewellery district, getting away with over $4 million in gold jewellery. Attias was murdered in January 1990, and New York’s Israeli mafia fell apart soon after. Several members among them Ron Gonen had turned informant and the authorities arrested the rest of the gang in September of that year.^[18]

Israeli crime organizations such as the Abergil crime family and Zeev Rosensteinare heavily involved in ecstasy trafficking in the United States.^[19] In a statement before Congress in 2000, officials with the U.S. Customs Service noted that “Israeli organized-crime elements appear to be in control” of the multibillion-dollar U.S. ecstasy trade, “from production through the international smuggling phase”.^[20] The main drug supplier of former Gambino crime family underbossSammy Gravano in his Arizona drug ring allegedly was New York based Israeli mobster Ilan Zarger,^[21] who allegedly distributed more than one million ecstasy pills from May 1999 to May 2000 with a wholesale value of $7 million.^[22]^[23] He pleaded guilty to charges of running a drug gang that flooded Arizona and New York with almost four million ecstasy pills over three years.^[24] Another Israeli, Oded Tuito, said to head one of the largest ecstasy-smuggling organization, which imported millions of ecstasy pills from Paris, Brussels and Frankfurt into New York, Miami and Los Angeles, was arrested in May 2001.^[25]

In 2006 Zeev Rosenstein was extradited to the U.S., after being arrested in Israel. He pleaded guilty before a federal court in Florida to charges that he distributed ecstasy pills and was sentenced to 12 years in prison which he serves in Israel.^[3]In January 2011, Itzhak (Itzik) Abergil and Meir Abergil and three other suspects were extradited to the U.S.

They are facing a 77-page, 32-count federal indictment that alleges murder, massive embezzlement, money laundering, racketeering and running a large Los Angeles-based ecstasy ring. The trial is set for November 8, 2011 in the Los Angeles Federal District Court.^[26]^{[needs update]}

References[edit]

Jump up^ “VICELAND: Charlie Abutbul was badly wounded in a hail of bullets inside a Netanya eatery on Monday”. Vicelander.blogspot.be. 2008-09-10. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Jonathan Lis (March 15, 2009).“Police cite significant achievements against major crime families. The Israel Police spent the past year focusing on Israel’s 16 crime families”. Haaretz.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Marc Perelman (October 16, 2008). “Israel Seeks U.S. Help To Fight Mob Crime Wave”. The Jewish Daily Forward. Retrieved August 8, 2011.
Jump up^ Misha Glenny (2008). McMafia : seriously organised crime. London: Vintage Books. pp. 120–121.ISBN 978-0-09-948125-6.
Jump up^ Glenny (2008) p. 130-131
Jump up^ “The Jewish Mafia: An Interview with Hervé Ryssen”. Retrieved26 December 2014.
Jump up^ Jews of Brooklyn. Retrieved26 December 2014.
Jump up^ “NCJRS Abstract – National Criminal Justice Reference Service”. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
Jump up^ “Parket wil Belg-zijn afpakken”. Het Nieuwsblad. Retrieved 26 December2014.
Jump up^ “Gansters krijgen vrijbrief – helden worden gestraft”. Retrieved26 December 2014.
Jump up^ Khalil, Ashraf (January 6, 2009).“Police in Israel grapple with a mafia gang war”. Los Angeles Times.
Jump up^ “New destination for alleged Israeli mobsters on the run: Morocco”.Haaretz.com. 14 September 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
Jump up^ “Israëlische mafiabaas is onzichtbare spin in xtc-web / Nieuws / Politics.be – Jouw politieke portaalsite”.Politics.be. Retrieved 26 December2014.
Jump up^ “The Jewish Press » » Charlie Abutbul”. The Jewish Press. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
Jump up^ World Blog (26 December 2014).“Mafia-style violence in Gaza and BBC reporter”. NBC News. Retrieved26 December 2014.
Jump up^ “Police nab Israeli-Arab mob family head, 16 associates”. The Jerusalem Post – JPost.com. Retrieved26 December 2014.
Jump up^http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1485&context=ilj
Jump up^ Dave Copeland (2007). Blood and Volume: Inside New York’s Israeli Mafia. Fort Lee, N.J.: Barricade Books.ISBN 978-1-56980-327-1.
Jump up^ Summers, Chris; Quinn, Jennifer (June 7, 2004). “Israel struggles to keep a lid on crime”. BBC News. Retrieved August 8, 2011.
Jump up^ Christopher Ketcham (May 7, 2002).“The Israeli “art student” mystery”.Salon.com. Retrieved August 8, 2011.
Jump up^ Alan Feuer (December 15, 2000). “New Charges in Ecstasy Case Are Filed Against Gravano”. The New York Times.
Jump up^ “Ecstasy Dealer Sold To Gravano, Feds Say”. New York Daily News. July 7, 2000. Retrieved August 8,2011.^{[dead link]}
Jump up^ Feuer, Alan (May 25, 2001).“Gravano and Son Are to Enter Guilty Pleas in Ecstasy Case”. The New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2011.
Jump up^ Ramirez, Anthony (January 9, 2001).“Brooklyn Drug Dealer Pleads Guilty”. The New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2011.
Jump up^ Alan Feuer (May 27, 2001). “In Drug Case, a Chip Off the Old Bull”. The New York Times. Retrieved August 8,2011.
Jump up^ Rex Weiner (March 2, 2011).“Extradited to L.A., the Abergils Get Ready To Face the Music”. The Jewish Daily Forward. RetrievedAugust 8, 2011.

Thomas Körner zuvor Scientology und jetzt Vorstandsmitglied der FDP Hövelhof

Organized crime in Israel

Organized crime in Israel

The major crime groups are the Abergils, the Abutbuls, the Alperons, theDumranis, the Shirazis, the Amir Molnar and Zeev Rosenstein syndicates.^[2] The illegal activities they are engaged in include:

Operating casinos and other forms of gambling inside and outside Israel

Car theft and smuggling

Prostitution

Drug trafficking

Human trafficking

Money Laundering

Protection and extortion rackets

Loan sharking

Drugs and arms dealing

Fencing stolen goods

Diamond smuggling^{[citation needed]}

Ex-Soviet organized crime[edit]

Georgian-Jewish organized crime[edit]

North-African crime families[edit]

Palestinian organized crime[edit]

In the United States[edit]

They are facing a 77-page, 32-count federal indictment that alleges murder, massive embezzlement, money laundering, racketeering and running a large Los Angeles-based ecstasy ring. The trial is set for November 8, 2011 in the Los Angeles Federal District Court.^[26]^{[needs update]}

References[edit]