Police uncovered a major criminal operation in which IDF weapons
worth hundreds of thousands of shekels were stolen from an army base and
sold to criminals, it was announced on Thursday.
The stolen weapons included M-16 machine guns, rifles, grenade launchers, and a large quantity of ammunition.
"The two soldiers worked together to steal the weapons and
neutralized security measures in place on base," Ch.-Supt. Tomer Cohen,
head of the central unit's investigation division told The Jerusalem
Post on Thursday.
"They transferred the weapons to a group of people
who acted as intermediaries. These in turn hid the firearms and then
sold them to senior criminals," Cohen added.
"We are now checking to see if any of the weapons ended up in the hands of terrorists," Cohen said.
"Unfortunately,
the use of stolen firearms by criminals is quite widespread. For
criminals, it is an advantage to be armed with IDF weapons, as these
have not been used in past criminal incidents, making it harder to track
them down through forensics," Cohen added.
Police said a number of suspects have confessed to the suspicions against them, adding more arrests could follow.