By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Police arrested two people in connection with an explosion in Bat Yam on Thursday night which left one man dead and two badly wounded. Underworld figure Moti Hassin, as well as the owner of the house in which Hassin was arrested, Yossi Castro, were detained soon after the incident.
The dead man was named as Shlomi Vizana.
The explosion tore through a paint garage that acted as a front for an underworld bomb-making factory, a Tel Aviv police source told The Jerusalem Post.
"They were preparing the device for someone else," the source said. "We are seeking to find out which organization is affiliated with the garage."
Magen David Adom paramedics rushed the two wounded men, one in serious and the other in critical condition, to Tel Aviv's Sourasky Medical Center.
A large fire broke out in the garage, and firefighters doused the flames.
Asst.-Cmdr. Yehuda Da'an, head of the Ayalon police sub-district, said that "three suspects entered the garage and handled an explosive device. An explosion then occurred."
Hassin has been linked to the Abergil crime family, with suggestions that he is slated to take over the outfit when the current leaders, Yitzhak and Meir Abergil, are extradited to the US on murder, money-laundering, extortion and narcotics charges.
Jpost.com staff contributed to this report.
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