Bomb maker nabbed in Kiryat Yovel apartment

Yehuda Elihav, 27, is under arrest for allegedly making and selling 10 small bombs in his Jerusalem home.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
Yehuda Eliav 224.88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Yehuda Eliav 224.88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
A 27-year-old Israeli is under arrest for allegedly making and selling 10 small bombs in his Jerusalem home, police revealed Tuesday. The suspect, Yehuda Elihav, was apprehended two weeks ago in his Kiryat Yovel home by undercover police detectives. The case first came to light after he asked a cop if he had any buyers for the explosives, police said. A court gag order on the case was lifted Tuesday. The Jewish suspect, who allegedly operated out of criminal motives, sold the undercover cop eight pipe bombs for NIS 2,500 to NIS 4,000 each, depending on the size of the explosive, which ranged from small to medium, police said. After making the purchases, the police closed in on the bomb maker and nabbed him in his home, where they found a ninth bomb. The suspect led police to an additional bomb he had hidden in a thicket in the city's Malha neighborhood, police said. During a search of his home, police uncovered an array of bomb-making materials, including electrical wiring, pipes and chemical substances used to make explosives, as well as bomb manuals, police said. The suspect, who learned how to make bombs during his military service and at a subsequent course he started taking at the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry, told police investigators that he had carried out several trial explosions near his Jerusalem flat, police said. One such explosion prompted neighbors to call police, but the suspected bomb-maker fled to his home and was not caught at the time. "There is no doubt that a major disaster was averted here," said Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco. Franco said that had any of the bombs exploded in the apartment - which operated as "a mini bomb-making industry" - it would have caused substantial damage to the building and to neighboring apartments. Police are now investigating whether similar explosives were already used in criminal attacks. All of the bombs uncovered in the Jerusalem apartment were detonated by police sappers in a controlled explosion. The suspected bomb maker has been remanded in custody by a Jerusalem court and will be indicted later this month.