Who stashed the Ramat Gan gun?

Police haul in nearly a dozen associates of crime boss Mulner over pistol found in a fuse box.

By BEN HARTMAN
Guns 370 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Guns 370
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Eleven men linked to top organized crime figure Amir Mulner were arrested on Sunday for allegedly conspiring to obtain and stash a pistol found by police last month.
Later in the day, the men, who include Mulner’s bodyguard, were brought to the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court, where their remands were extended for eight days.
When the pistol was first found, police arrested three of the 11 – Lior Belissa, Lior Avda and Kobi Dagan – but released them a few days later. On Sunday, police said that other details had since emerged.
Investigators don’t believe that the men were planning to stage a mob hit with the pistol, nor were the arrests carried out to stop a “ticking bomb.”
Two of the men arrested on Sunday were stopped while on their way to Ben-Gurion Airport, said police, who would not elaborate on the men’s destinations.
At the moment, Mulner is abroad and far from Israeli investigators.
One of the mobster’s few prison stints involved a sentence of 32 months for conspiracy and illegal firearms possession – in connection with a plot to stash a pistol and silencer in the backyard of a Ramat Gan apartment building.
Last Wednesday, police seized a bullet-proofed Toyota Land Cruiser belonging to Mulner while one of his associates was driving it in Ramat Gan. Such vehicles require special permits and are illegal for private ownership.