Intel. on IDF tactics given to Lebanese correspondent in exchange for drugs.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, APmazariv hizbullah spy (photo credit: Channel 2)
The Shin Bet and police arrested a Beduin man on charges of spying for Hizbullah, police said Thursday.
Riyad Mazariv, 30, from Beit Zarzir was arrested on July 21 and was charged Thursday morning with aiding the enemy at a time of war, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
Mazariv admitted that he had given a Lebanese drug trafficker who was associated with Hizbullah information on IDF operational progression, tactical plans for IDF action in Lebanon, and the exact locations of rocket landings in Israel.
IDF sources said that Mazariv had been in touch with the Lebanese man prior to the outbreak of the war. The man was Mazariv's apparent contact, from whom Mazariv would receive drugs smuggled through the disputed town of Ghajar for the purpose of trafficking in Israel.
Several days after the kidnapping of the IDF soldiers on July 12, Mazariv's Lebanese contact asked him to provide information regarding updated IDF action in the area - more specifically, the possibility of an IDF ground invasion into Lebanon.
His contact explained that the information would be used for the purpose of deterring Hizbullah's attention from their drug-smuggling scheme.
Mazariv told his contact that according to Israeli news broadcasts, the army was focused on an aerial invasion, and that if he heard of any ground activity in Lebanon, he would notify him.
Mazariv had several conversations with the Hizbullah agent, during which he told him when IDF ground forces were to enter Lebanon, along with the number of troops. He also told him when infantry soldiers would be transported to the ground from the air.
Mazariv informed him that the IDF had warned the residents of south Lebanon to leave their homes in areas harboring Hizbullah guerrillas.
During one of their conversations, Mazariv was asked if he had any contacts within the IDF.
Mazariv denied having any such contacts, but promised to look into the matter.
Contrary to Mazariv's claims that he had no IDF contacts, he had supposedly taken on a Beduin tracker from the Givati brigade, also from Zarzir, as an accomplice.
After the operative asked him about the purpose of a blimp hovering in the air during an IAF bombing in Lebanon, Mazariv explained that it was being used to take pictures of the area as a means of guiding the attack.
Mazariv explained at his interrogation that the only information he had relayed to the Lebanese man had come from the news, and denied using any other source.
The Zarzir resident was indicted on Thursday at the Nazareth District Court.
The army assessed that by relaying such information to the Lebanese man, Mazariv had contributed to Hizbullah's gathering of Israeli intelligence.
The IDF also claimed that Mazariv was just one of many people involved in criminal and drug-related actions whom Hizbullah used to gather intelligence that would later be utilized during the Israeli-Hizbullah conflict.
Drug traffickers in Israel were asked to concentrate their smuggling on the north of the country for the purpose of passing on information, and would be rewarded with the illegal substances.
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