Police stumble on 'marijuana forest' around caravan in Kfar Malal

Officers unconvinced by suspect's claim that the plants were for "personal use"

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
marijuina forest 248 88 (photo credit: Israel Police)
marijuina forest 248 88
(photo credit: Israel Police)
Police officers accompanying a National Insurance forfeiture squad, out on a routine call on Tuesday to confiscate assets from a man who owed money to the state, were astonished to find themselves in the middle of a forest of marijuana plants. Dozens of plants, measuring as high as 1.8 meters (5 ft. 9 in.), surrounded a caravan being rented by a 39-year-old man in Kfar Malal, near Kfar Saba in the Sharon District of central Israel. The officers dispatched detectives from the nearby Kfar Saba police station, who proceeded to seize 62 plants, scales, and packaging bags from the property. "After noticing the suspicious plants, I was called to the scene," Kfar Saba Police's intelligence officer, Supt. Nissan Ben-Aruya, told The Jerusalem Post. "Inside the caravan we found machines to dry the plants and prepare the stuff for sale." Based on the current street price of NIS 1,200 per kilo, the 25 kilograms of marijuana seized was worth a total of NIS 30,000. Officers were unconvinced by the suspect's claim that the plants were for "personal use" in order to help him deal with an eating disorder. He is due to appear before the Kfar Saba Magistrate's Court for a remand hearing.