This morning, reporting was permitted of the longest ever operation of a covert agent by the Israel Police, in cooperation with the Israel Tax Authority. The operation has now ended, after the agent, who was given the code name Jack Sparrow, exposed crimes of goods smuggling in return for bribes, and tax and money laundering offenses, amounting to tens of millions of shekels at Ashdod Port. Following four and a half years of the activity of the covert police agent, a swathe of arrests was carried out this morning of importers in Israel and in Judea and Samaria, customs agents, and a customs inspector.
The arrests are the fruit of a long and complex investigation managed by the Israel Police Lachish Central Unit, the Tel Aviv Customs and VAT Investigations Unit, and the Ashdod Customs House, accompanied by the Southern Region District Attorney’s Office and the Legal Unit for Special Cases in the Israel Tax Authority.
After the police agent, acting as a customs worker, managed to win the trust of the importers and customs agents, they began to request his assistance in smuggling goods arriving in containers at Ashdod Port. He would supposedly inspect a container and ensure that its contents matched the declaration to the customs authorities. The amount of customs duty payable would be set in accordance with the declaration and the inspector’s certification, for which he was paid bribes of tens and even hundreds of thousands of shekels.
The importers and agents are suspected of bribing additional people, among them a worker at the Ashdod Customs House and a worker at the Ministry of Transport, who have also been arrested.
Over the years, in the course of his duties, the agent inspected hundreds of containers arriving in Israel. In the case of dozens of them he was paid by the suspects to turn a blind eye to goods cleared in creative ways, such as tobacco products in parts for mannequins, luxury brand clothing and footwear, some suspected to be forgeries, cleared in containers of apparently cheap clothing, and vehicle parts that had not received Ministry of Transport approval.
The agent also caught illegal merchandise such as weapons and ammunition cleared in rolls of carpet, small weapons parts cleared in crates supposedly containing screws, large quantities of Kamagra gel without Ministry of Health approval cleared in barrels of pickled cucumbers, weapons parts welded into a machine, large quantities of dangerous drugs, tobacco, forged brand merchandise and highly credible replicas, children’s’ toys with no standards certificate, and many other products meant to have been brought into Israel and distributed around the country and in Judea and Samaria.
After four and a half years of evidence gathering, hundreds of police, Border Guards and IDF troops raided the homes of dozens of suspects in Israel and in Judea and Samaria this morning, arrested the suspects and carried out searches in which documents, money and property suspected of originating in economic crimes were seized. The suspects are being questioned at the offices of the Israel Police Lachish Central Unit concerning alleged money laundering, bribery of a state official, smuggling and other offences. They will be brought before the Magistrates Court for a hearing on their cases.
The Port of Ashdod said in a statement: "The Ashdod Port Company seeks to make clear that there was no raid on the Port of Ashdod this morning, and none of the company’s employees was arrested. We would stress unequivocally that no port workers, certainly no senior managers, are involved in the Tax Authority and Israel Police investigation." Israel Tax Authority sources confirmed that there was no raid on the Port of Ashdod and that no senior managers of the port had been arrested.
Presumption of innocence: The suspects in this affair have not been convicted of any crime, and are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 10, 2024.
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