Police agent exposes massive smuggling at Ashdod Port

Port of Ashdod  credit: Shutterstock
Port of Ashdod credit: Shutterstock

Dozens of importers and customs agents were arrested this morning at the end of a four-and-a-half year covert investigation.

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.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.

Port of Ashdod  credit: Shutterstock
Port of Ashdod credit: Shutterstock
Unframe founders credit: Yossi Yarom Israeli AI enterprise platform co Unframe raises $50m

Unframe’s turnkey AI solutions enable companies to solve any enterprise AI use case at scale with fully functional, customized AI solutions for businesses in a matter of hours, rather than months.

Combatica credit: Combatica Combatica launches next-gen VR AI training platform

The Israeli company's virtual reality platform includes 50 AI generated scenarios, seven maps and even situations for operating night vision.

Shekel credit: Shutterstock Vladirina 32 Shekel volatility after US tariffs announcement

The shekel is weakening sharply against the euro, which is gaining following the unveiling of Donald Trump's tariffs plan.

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich credit: Noam Moskovitz Knesset Spokesperson Treasury assesses potential damage to Israel's US exports

Israel will be charged a higher tariff on its exports to the US - its biggest export customer - than Turkey and the UAE.

Iranian flag credit: Shutterstock Why inflation haunts Iran

With a month-on-month increase of 3.3% and an annual rate of 37.1%, inflation reflects the struggles of millions of Iranians.

APM merges with lawyers from Doron, Tikotzky Kantor, Gutman credit: Eyal Merilos APM merges with 12 lawyers from Doron, Tikotzky Kantor, Gutman

With the addition of these 12 lawyers, Amit Pollak Matalon & Co. will now have 135 lawyers.

US President Donald Trump credit: Reuters Sipa USA Israel on list as Trump unveils tariffs

Relatively low reciprocal tariffs will be imposed on Israeli goods sold in the US.

Deflated unicorn credit: Shutterstock Big Tech 50 reports more huge falls in startup valuations

Israeli R&D partnership Big Tech 50 reports that an investment of $2 million in Orcam made in 2021, shrank to just $31,000 at the end of 2024.

NextFerm technologies based on yeast credit: NextFerm Food-tech co NextFerm suspends operations

The company, which produces food ingredients in yeast without genetic engineering, cannot pay its debts and is seeking a buyer.

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich credit: Shlomi Yosef OECD sees recovery in growth but high inflation

The OECD Israel Economic Survey 2025 recommends that the Israeli government take several restraining measures, in order to exit the economic storm created by the war.

Dano Ben-Hur credit: Dror Sithakol Statisticians contradict BoI on impact of housing finance deals

The Central Bureau of Statistics insists the impact of 20/80 buy now pay later financing deals on the real estate market and housing prices is minimal.

Governor of the Bank of Israel Amir Yaron  credit: Government Press Office Debt fears top Bank of Israel's concerns

Most unusually, Governor of the Bank of Israel Amir Yaron's press conference last week did not focus on inflation and the impending interest rate decision.

US President Donald Trump  credit: Reuters/Leah Millis Israel moves to avoid Trump's tariffs axe

Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich has signed an order canceling all tariffs on imports from the US. The impact will mostly be on agricultural produce.

Forbes Rich List credit: Shutterstock Maslowski Marcin Wiz founders ranked in Forbes 2025 Rich List

There are a few dozen Israelis listed in the 2025 Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List including Wiz founders Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik and Ami Luttwak.

SatixFy CEO Nir Barkan credit: Ariel Barkan Canada's MDA Space to buy Israeli satcom co SatixFy

MDA Space will pay $269 million for the Israeli company, including taking on a $76 million debt and a 75% premium on SatixFy's closing price on Nasdaq yesterday.

Raising dollars credit: Shutterstock Israeli startups raised over $1b in March

Israeli privately-held tech companies have raised $2.1 billion in the first three months of 2025, according to IVC-LeumiTech, up 24% from the corresponding quarter of 2024.

Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018