Sister of ex-mob boss arrested in connection to double murder

Police have tied Chaya Alperon to a daytime double murder in Petah Tikva in June carried out by two man on motorcycles.

By BEN HARTMAN
Handcuffs (illustrative photo) 370 (photo credit: Reuters)
Handcuffs (illustrative photo) 370
(photo credit: Reuters)
Chaya Alperon, the sister of late crime boss Ya’acov Alperon, was arrested on Sunday in connection to a daytime double murder in Petah Tikva in June.
On Sunday afternoon, the Kfar Saba Magistrate’s Court ordered her to remain in custody for a further 24 hours, in order to question her about her alleged connection to the killings.
Police had initially asked for a 12-day remand.
The incident in question was a midday drive-by shooting in a quiet Petah Tikva neighborhood that took the lives of Eli Orkobi, 35, and Eran Partush, 42.
The shooting was carried out by two men on a motorcycle in the middle of a school day on the same block as a high school and two kindergartens, drawing public outrage.
Orkobi and Partush were killed and a third man wounded at the foot of an apartment building that is well known to Central District police. The building, which is still under construction, includes apartments purchased by crime family head Avi Ruhan as well as reputed underworld figure Chico Ben-Adeh, and Orkobi himself.
Orkobi was an associate of Eli Reuben, who ran a “gray market” bank in the Petah Tikva market. A couple of months before the double murder, Reuben and his associates badly beat Reuben Partush, Alperon’s son (no relation to Eran Partush), driving her to seek revenge, police suspect. On April 30, Reuben was wounded in a shooting in the city.
Eran Partush, who was the contractor building the apartments, is not believed to have been a target of the killing, but rather an innocent bystander, as was the third man who was wounded.
Alperon’s lawyer, Moshe Yochai, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the arrest was carried out “because her last name is Alperon, it sounds good in headlines.”
He added that he believes the arrest is part of police efforts to garner positive public relations in the wake of blatant underworld violence.
“So they go out and arrest a 62-year-old grandmother of 12.”
Chaya’s brother, Ya’acov, was killed when a bomb exploded in his car while he was at a junction in north Tel Aviv in November 2008.
No one has been arrested in that crime.