Israeli mob associate found murdered in South Africa

Shimmy Anu was believed to be high-ranking member of Musli brothers crime family, which has clashed with Abergil affiliated gangs.

By BEN HARTMAN
Johannesburg skyline 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Johannesburg skyline 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
An Israeli mob associate linked to a major organized crime family was found shot to death in South Africa this week, some six months after he left Israel.
Shimmy Anu was believed to the be the right-hand man of Shay Musli, one of the leaders of the Musli brothers crime family, which formed in the Hatikva neighborhood of south Tel Aviv and has since spread through the Rishon Letzion, Bat Yam, and Holon areas as well as the Sharon region.
Six months ago Shay left Israel and took Shimmy with him. According to the Israeli crime blog “Posta.co.il”, which first reported Shimmy's murder in Israel, the two initially went to Bucharest, Romania, where the Muslis run casinos, before later moving to South Africa. On Wednesday, some six months later, Shimmy's family in south Tel Aviv were notified that he was found dead in an open area near Johannesburg.
Shimmy and his brother Beru were two of the organization's top lieutenants in its battle over gambling, exchange houses, and loan sharking interests in the Gush Dan area.
The struggle has taken almost two dozen lives and pitted the Musli family against the crime gangs that sprouted out of the Abergil organization, including the Avi Ruhan gang in the Sharon and Dudu Amouyal and Moti Hassin's organizations in the Rishon and Holon-Bat Yam areas.
The Musli organization remains one of the top targets of Israel police investigators and is considered one of the leading crime families in Israel.
In recent years, partly to avoid police investigations, but also the underworld violence in Israel, members of the Musli organization have based themselves abroad, mainly in Romania but also among the Israeli criminal community in South Africa. A number of other crime figures have spent a large amount of time abroad in recent years, especially in Morocco, where southern crime boss Shalom Domrani has spent the majority of the past couple years. For their part, police say the criminal migration from Israel is the result of their efforts against organized crime. South Africa is one of the main countries they have called home, police assert, in addition to a number of countries in eastern Europe and Latin America.