An indictment was filed against a 47-year-old chareidi man, a resident of Meah Shearim, on Monday morning (5 Tishrei). The defendant stands accused of smuggling cocaine into the country.
The man flew from Israel to Peru where he allegedly received the drugs which were packaged in nylon wrapping. He swallowed bags of the drug as well. The remainder was placed in a suitcase. He left Lima for Amsterdam and from there headed home. He was stopped by drug inspectors in Ben-Gurion International Airport, and a search revealed 25 packages of cocaine, 250 grams. Three additional packages were found in his stomach, amounting to 730 grams.
He told authorities that he was only a courier, paid NIS 5,000 for his efforts. Authorities report the street value of his cargo is about NIS 1.5 million. Police are working to track down others involved in the drug smuggling operation.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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17 Responses
obviously hes desperate for money – hes lucky it was in israel not japan or peru
Throw the book at him.
So they complain that Hareidim don’t work. This guys go into import-export, and they throw the book at him. Maybe they shouldn’t complain if someone sits and learns.
I wonder if the syndicate with which he is affiliated planned to sell the cocaine in Meah Shearim.
A new type of ‘meshulach’. Very sad indeed that someone has to stoop so low for money.
Let’s try to do a bit better for the ehrliche meshulochim that are forced by circumstances to come to chutz l’oretz to collect for their families.
Here we go again. WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN?! NO MORE EXCUSES! This guy was 47 and he knew good and well what he was doing. How can someone smuggle cocaine INTO Eretz Israel?!
After what happened with the boys in Japan there are no excuses left. I hope he is given a stiff sentence to deter any other future couriers.
at least he wasn’t on the internet or watching TV…
Akuperma, the reason he came le’yadei kach is, mestama, because he never learnt an umanus to support himself.
Courier my foot. When was the last time someone asked you to take a package for them… in your stomach. He’s a drug mule who masquerades as a Frum Jew. Good bye and good riddance.
He is just plain lucky he isn’t dead. Had one of the packs he swallowed broken, he would have been dead of an overdose within minutes.
Why are you saying to throw the book at him? He was probably trying to marry off his daughter and buy an apartment so his son-in-law could sit and learn Torah. 😉
#8 – He learned a profession. Often it is a very lucrative one. It just happens to be illegal. Some yidden sell sefarim. Some yidden sell groceries. Some yidden push stocks and bonds. Some yidden sell alcoholic beverages, and not just to other yidden. There is nothing inherently immoral about selling cocaine (and it used to be legal in most countries), and the fact that it is criminal in most countries makes it a better business risk. In this case, he made a risky business bet (perhaps better than buying Greek bonds, or reserving a seat for Obama’s next inauguration), and he lost.
Akuperma, do you have any idea of the dangers of cocaine? Rav Moshe paskened that it is totally forbiden to use these drugs. Everybody involved in this is a rodef and should be thrown into a dungeon for so long he will forget what the Sun looks like.
@#3 & #8:
you are either a fool or a troll.
People like this deserve to rot in jail for the damage they cause to society.
Maybe those 3 bochrim in Japan had no idea of what they were doing (although they had intent to illegally transport antiques), but this, and your comments, are beyond the pale.
Your comments here shed a lot of light on your psyche and the polarized way you view the world in general, and life here in Eretz Yisroel in particular.
I think readers would be well advised to treat your comments on all topics as those of a fool.
Such a chillul Hashem. I am waiting for the people to claim he did it by accident or that he didn’t know better. Maybe they will write a sefer torah in his honor. Of course he needs meat with the highest level of schechita. He need to be treated like the behaymas he will be in jail with for hopefully a long time. Cocaine kills! It destroys families and lives.
I have no idea who this was or exactly what and why this happened but a bit of perspective is needed. The only problem with smuggling cocaine is that it is illegal. The reason it is illegal has nothing to do with the welfare or health of the public. Drugs are kept illegal because that way the profits are astronomical. In most cases when a fool like this is caught is because he has been setup for some reason. More often than not, it is to advance the career of an ally of the drug dealers in the police or political establishment. So don’t be so quick pour out your misplaced wrath on this pawn.
Aryeh Zelasko
Beit Shemesh
Sorry Mr Zelasko, but as a fellow resident of Beit Shemesh I do not want anyone selling cocaine or any other class A drug to my kids, or to your kids for that matter (and not even to Akuperma’s kids).
If there are no couriers, there are no pushers and there can be no users.
Mind altering substances are illegal not because of the huge profits they generate, that’s just conspiracy theory junk, but because of what they do to the body and mind.
Drug producers, manufacturers, couriers and sellers should be hunted down and destroyed for the damage and grief they cause society.
Just think about what you have written; would you say the same thing about heroine or methamphetamines etc? would you claim that the only thing wrong with smuggling them is that it’s against the law? A law that was anyway instituted to drive up profits for some unknown boogeyman (be it the drug cartels or the govt. or some sinsiter worldwide element)?
You know full well the damage that drugs, even the relatively light ones do to our society.
And finally. “misplaced wrath on this pawn”? Indeed! This man does not live in some hell-hole n a third world country like Colombia or Jamaica.
No one put a gun to his head and told him that if he dosn’t get on a plane to Peru, swallow packages of cocaine, and smuggle them into Israel they would kill him and his family.
This is someone who with full knowledge of what he was doing, decided to become a drug mule to make a quick buck. Whether or not he was set up is irrelevant. He made a decision to be part of an operation that not only has the potential to, but will hurt (and possibly contribute to the death of) other people, and for that he has to take full responsibility and face the consequences.
We as a community also have to take responsibility and realize that we have in our midsts evil people who are willing to jeperdise other’s safety in order to make money. We must not be appologists for this type of behaviour, and definately not condone it by resorting to illogical arguements about legallity.
’nuff sed