Undercover policeman takes down 50 drug dealers across Israel
A police officer who acted as a secret agent was successful in penetrating influential and high levels of drug dealers across the country, leading to the indictment of about 50 suspects from all over the country.
One of the arrests. (Police)
The Israel Police moved to the open phase of Operation 219 Monday morning, after more than a year of covert investigation, and made some 45 arrests, with more expected in the near future.
The agent, a police officer in his 20s, was trained in a lengthy process that ended with his undercover deployment as a cocaine and MDMA drug dealer.
The undercover agent, who was located during his recruitment to the Israel Police, was sent at the beginning of the year to establish social and business connections with drug offenders throughout the country.
During the operation, the agent was sent to carry out documented transactions and purchased large amounts of cocaine and MDMA worth hundreds of thousands of shekels from influential drug traffickers.
On Monday morning, as the covert phase of the operation matured, hundreds of detectives and Border Police troops raided the homes of about 45 suspects across the country and they were taken for questioning at the Central Police Station on suspicion of drug trafficking offences
Later in the day, the suspects, residents of Netanya, Petah Tikva, Rishon LeZion, Taibeh, Jaljulia, Lod, Ramla, Rehovot, Nesher, Rahat, Ashdod, Sderot, Haifa, Bat Yam and Kiryat Yam, will be brought before a judge in the Magistrate’s Court in Rishon Lezion.
In a ceremony held before the troops left for the arrest operation, the commander of the Central District Avi Bitton stated that “the drug infestation in the State of Israel poses a real threat to public peace and security and is a fertile ground for bloody struggles in the criminal world.”
“This morning, dozens of influential drug offenders will understand, too late for them, that the drug deals they carried out, they made with us,” with the police, he added.
