(VIDEO AND PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

A Shai (Shomron – Yehuda) Police spokesman reports Israeli police arrested 19 persons suspected of trading in gold from Yehuda and Shomron to Israel proper as well as money laundering and tax evasion of more than half a billion shekels.

Israel Police led the case, working with other enforcement authorities against economic crime, while promoting an effective chain of treatment, which includes exposing the offenses, investigating them, collecting evidence and prosecuting them.

In the course of the past year, the Israel Police led a covert investigation in cooperation with Customs VAT investigations in Jerusalem and a diamond unit in the Israel Tax Authority, which revealed that gold dealers from Israel would buy gold from merchants from Ramallah, process it in factories, create jewelry, and untimely, take the gold abroad.

According to the investigation materials collected so far, it emerged that during the two years that the suspects had withheld declaring money and paying taxes as well as money laundering capital by means of false documentation, using false accounting coverage of existing accounts and companies, with the aim of deceiving the tax authorities, to conceal income and launder capital.

19 suspects were arrested, including 15 residents of central and northern Israel, two suspects from eastern Jerusalem and two PA (Palestinian Authority) residents from Ramallah.

In the course of the activity, a large amount of property was seized, including: checks, gold jewelry, dozens of luxury watches, 1 million in cash, 22 vehicles that were used by the suspects, and suspected explosives.

The suspects are being interrogated at this time in the Central Unit of the Shai District of the Israel Police and the police are expected to request that their detention be extended at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Police Spokesman Unit)