Southern District Attorney's Office submits indictments against 15 defendants, all from same crime syndicate.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBHandcuffs arrest police crime illustrative 390(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
The Southern District Attorney’s Office on Monday submitted four indictments in the Beersheba District Court against 15 defendants, all of the same Beersheba crime syndicate. The state said that in the coming days another indictment is expected to be filed against a rival criminal organization that operated in Eilat.The large busts of the crime syndicates came about as a result of joint efforts between police personnel fighting organized crime and a unit investigating systematic financial crimes such as money laundering and tax fraud.Most of the case against the two crime syndicates was assembled by one of the syndicate’s turncoat agents who had worked in both syndicates, but turned state’s witness and remained undercover gathering evidence for some time.There is a gag order on the identity of the state witness, who is referred to only as “A.V.” in the indictment.A.V. was the driver for many of the organization’s “hits” as well as for collecting money from the organization’s debtors, said the indictments.He was involved in the organization from its founding in 2001, noted the indictments, although he took a break from the Beersheba syndicate for a few years, working in the Eilat syndicate during that time.Regarding the Beersheba crime organization, the charges include: running a crime organization; managing and directing the crime organization; several counts of attempted murder; conspiracy; extortion; causing aggravated bodily harm; tax fraud; and money laundering.The indictments state that the organization was formed for the purpose of making large profits through the use of violence, threats and extortion, in order to grant loans with interest and cover-up profits with tax fraud and money laundering.The Beersheba crime syndicate heads were Shmuel Greenberg and Yossi “Zaza” Tzadik, said the indictments.The organization operated with a clear hierarchical structure, where every defendant had specific duties, alleged the indictments.According to the indictments, which mostly cover the years 2008-2012, Greenberg and Tzadik gave directives to their subordinates regarding their actions, financed the activities of the organization and decided on the distribution of the organization’s profits.The indictments also trace a conflict and violence between the Beersheba syndicate and the Eilat syndicate, led by Hagai Zagury and Moshe Rubin.Members of the Beersheba organization also trailed and spied on members of the Eilat organization in order to plan and carry out violent activities, noted the indictments.The Beersheba criminal organization’s members traveled throughout the city armed with various weapons and often in stolen vehicles, said the indictments.A press release by the Justice Ministry noted that most of the members of the Eilat syndicate were recently convicted in a separate case in the Beersheba District Court and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.While filing of the indictments, the prosecution simultaneously requested that the court remand all fifteen defendants to police custody until the end of legal proceedings against them, as well as for forfeiture of their seized property and money.The press release cited the arrests as yet another example of the police’s ongoing struggle against organized crime in the South.
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