Senior mob figure targeted in Ramat Gan bombing

Uri Luzon escapes with minor injury as bomb sparks fears of terrorist attack

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
A deafening explosion rocked Ramat Gan late on Thursday night, lightly wounding a man police consider to be a "senior soldier" of underworld kingpin Amir Mulner. Uri Luzon and his bodyguard sustained light injuries when the bomb planted on a Ramat Gan street was detonated, shaking nearby buildings and sparking fears among residents of a terrorist attack. Luzon's vehicle was slightly damaged. Police sappers were called to the scene and began gathering evidence. In March 2006, Luzon was involved in near-deadly confrontation with underworld figure Nissim Alperon, (brother of the late Ya'acov Alperon). Luzon and Alperon pulled out guns when their meeting at a Tel Aviv steak restaurant went sour, and undercover police officers pounced on the men. Luzon once worked for the Alperon as a debt collector, but switched sides and joined a man viewed by police as a "rising star" and an explosives expert in the underworld scene, Amir Mulner. Mulner had fallen out with Ya'acov Alperon in January 2006 during a "mafia summit" at the Daniel Hotel in Herzliya. The encounter turned violent and Mulner was stabbed in the neck during a verbal confrontation with Alperon. A month later, Mulner was arrested near Baka al-Gharbiya in possession of bombs. In February 2008, Ya'acov Alperon was killed when a large bomb detonated under his vehicle as he drove in north Tel Aviv. He was on his way home from court where his son Dror had been indicted an hour earlier for blackmail. Weeks after the assassination, Mulner, together with 16 other suspects, was arrested during a police raid on a Ramat Gan apartment. Mulner has been charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and possession of a gun with a silencer, and is in custody until the end of legal proceedings.