The raid took place on Friday morning 5 Adar 5773 at the border of Israel’s territorial waters, far out into the Mediterranean. Two fishing vessels were boarded by police marine units backed up by naval patrol vessels. Acting on intelligence information, police apprehended 38,000 cartons of cigarettes that were headed to Israel, with a street value of over 7 million NIS. Tens of arrests were made including three Israelis on board the smuggling vessels, apparently the masterminds of the cigarette smuggling operation.
Police explain the smugglers planned to bypass customs officials and thereby avoid paying taxes on the cigarettes.
Most of the people in custody are not related to the smuggling operation but rather crew members on board the vessels which took off from a port in Cyprus.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
YWN – the photo is totally irrelevant
The picture attached to this article showing, “chareidi children” holding cigarettes on purim, is misleading. It gives the impression that chareidi kids were involved in this smuggling ring. Please be more carefull about “Tinokos Shel Bais Rabon”.