The head of a large criminal organization in Israel, Yossi Mosley, has been arrested after he was detained at Ben-Gurion Airport, and his detention has been extended by a week, Israeli police said on Thursday morning.
He returned to Israel on Wednesday night to attend his daughter's wedding, which will take place on August 17; his detention was extended until then by agreement of all parties involved.
Mosley is suspected of the murder of Avihai Vaknin, who was killed in February 2017, and of the attempted murders of the criminals Itzik Cohen and Yankal'e Amsalem. Before the hearing, Mosley said that "it's all conspiracies. I have no conflict with anyone."
He heads one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Israel and was already investigated by the Tel Aviv District Police in 2017 as part of the "Arab Spring" case.
Mosley fled Israel to South Africa in 2017, after several of his criminal associates, who worked in cooperation with him, were arrested as part of the investigation.
In the following days, Mosley will be confronted with investigation materials that the police have collected against him so far. It is estimated that the material will then be forwarded to the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office, where they will decide if there is room to file an indictment against him, according to police reports.
Mosley's attorney, Doron Noy, denied all the suspicions attributed to him, stating that they "have no doubt that in the next few days the police will come to the conclusion that he has nothing to do with the suspicions and he will be released and come to his daughter's wedding. This is why he came to Israel."
Israel Police are making special preparations for his daughter's wedding, due to concerns that Mosley's enemies will try to attack at the event.
Falling out
Mosley has fallen out with a number of criminal associates in the past years, including his close confidant, Cottier Odeh, after financial disputes emerged between the two.
Mosley fled the country after Cottier and 19 other criminals, most of whom belong to his organization, were arrested on suspicion of committing a series of serious crimes, including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, weapons offenses and more.
Last month, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Cottier to 18 years in prison, as part of the attorney's office's flagship case regarding crime in the Arab sector.
In December 2021, Odeh pleaded guilty and was convicted of a series of serious violent crimes – but not of running a criminal organization, even though the law enforcement system considered him to be the head of one.
At the end of last year, Tel Aviv District Court vice president Judge Benny Sagi convicted Odeh along with 21 other criminals, including a minor, of aiding and abetting murder, attempted murder, sabotage as well as weapons offenses, extortion and tax offenses, each according to his part.
Another person with whom Mosley had a conflict is Eran Haya, who was his close friend for many years.
The two were part of the Israeli commune of criminals that settled in South Africa; Haya and Mosley fled the country together following the investigation of the Cottier affair.
The quarrel between them, which happened recently, severely hurt Mosley's organization, which now has to find new allies to prevent the disintegration of his collapsing criminal empire and the abandonment of senior criminals who worked with him and crossed over to other organizations, including Haya's.