Police: Crime boss, seven of his men arrested for plotting attacks on rival

Over the past year, the crime figure's name has been in the Israeli press on a number of occasions

By BEN HARTMAN
Police crime scene south Tel Aviv 370 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Police crime scene south Tel Aviv 370
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
A well-known organized crime figure and seven of his lieutenants were arrested on Thursday morning, after police said they found evidence they conspired to carry out attacks on a rival organization.
While at the moment the identity of the man and his organization are sealed by a gag order, over the past year his name has been in the Israeli press on a number of occasions, mainly due to a deadly feud between him and a rival crime boss with whom he is waging a turf war.
Over the past year the feud has involved car bombs and shooting attacks. One of these was a car bomb that exploded while the crime boss arrested on Thursday was traveling in this vehicle, an attack he narrowly escaped with his life.
Police would not say if the attacks the organization was planning involved explosions or shootings, but in the past several months the gang is believed to have carried out at least two high-profile bombings in Israel.
The arrests came amid a series of car bombs in Israel, including two over the past two weeks that left three men dead in Petah Tikva and Tel Aviv.
Senior police officials stated this week that most of the explosives are coming from the IDF, and that in recent years criminals have begun using bombs more and more often because of their low cost and the great difficulty police have in finding the perpetrators of bombings.