Tuesday,
November 18, 2008
The
ANNOTICO Report
Although Organized Crime is well documented in
However
in todays Newspapers the Pervasive Organized Crime in
Israel was spotlighted because of the car bombing and death of
Yaakov Alperon, Don of the Alperon Clan, that
is in a turf war with Abutbul, Abergil, Mulner, and Ohana families over
the multimillion-dollar bottle recycling operation. Police say criminals sell
restaurants protection in exchange for empties, giving crime families a source
of income that appears legitimate. Crime gangs in
Israeli
Organized crime, long overshadowed by the Arab-Israeli conflict, has become
such a part of everyday life that Israel has its own Sopranos -style TV
series, The Arbitrator, in which even synagogues are no refuge from hit men.The mob wars have killed dozens of gangsters and at
least eight bystanders in the last three years, and exposed law enforcement
officers in scandalous complicity.
Rival
underworld gangs are waging bloody battles for control of gambling and
protection rackets, targeting each other with bullets, bombs and anti-tank
missiles.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-11-17-israel-explosion_N.htm?csp=34
In
researching this article what was more shocking to me was that it has been reported
that the "Settlers
Israeli Crime Boss Killed in Car Bombing
Tel
Aviv police suspect a rival crime family is behind Yaakov Alperon
Los Angeles Times
By Richard Boudreaux
Reporting from
November 18, 2008
One
of Israel
The midday slaying of Ya- akov Alperon was described by
Israeli media as the boldest hit yet in a string of turf battles that have
killed dozens of gangsters and at least eight bystanders in the last three
years. A 13-year-old boy and two other pedestrians were slightly injured.
Israelis, who are far more accustomed to violence
between them and their Palestinian neighbors, were transfixed by the slaying.
It dominated the airwaves and overshadowed news of ongoing rocket fire from the
Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Television stations interrupted regular programming to show Alperon
Tel Aviv Police Chief Ilan Franco called the killing
"an extremely serious event" that "likely happened because of an
internal conflict within the Tel Aviv crime world."
Yossi Sedbon, a former police chief in
the city, said: "The meaning of this is simple: The battles between these
criminal gangs will continue and the families will be even more driven to
avenge his death. I fear the bloody red line will be crossed forever."
Suspicion initially fell on three rival crime families -- two of them are
battling the Alperon family for control of a
lucrative bottle recycling racket.
Crime gangs in
He was alone in the car when it blew up near a bus stop at the intersection of Namir and Yehuda Maccabi streets, not far from Tel Aviv
Army Radio said police suspected the bomb had been placed under the car while
it was parked at the courthouse.
The 51-year-old mobster was popularly known as Don Alperon.
He and his brothers gave frequent television interviews and were parodied on
comedy shows. His immediate family even took part in a reality TV show.
The son of Jewish immigrants from
Over the years, police have focused numerous investigations on the brothers,
who headed the family
Army Radio said police believed that Alperon might
have been killed because of a dispute between him and the Abutbul
and Abergil families over the multimillion-dollar
bottle recycling operation. Police say criminals sell restaurants protection in
exchange for empties, giving crime families a source of income that appears
legitimate.
Franco, the Tel Aviv police chief, said suspicion also fell on a family led by
Amir Mulner. The newspaper Haaretz
reported that the Alperon and Mulner
families battled with knives and guns during a 2006 meeting that had been
called to arbitrate a turf dispute and during which Mulner
was stabbed in the neck.
Alperon and his son Dror,
now 21, went into hiding for two months after the fight and then turned
themselves in to police. They were not charged.
Father and son had appeared in court Monday morning in a more recent case: the
son
The family
In its ruling, the court alluded to the various blood feuds among
"The spirit of many other crime families hovered in the air of the police
interrogation rooms and especially in the courtroom," it said.
Boudreaux is a Times staff writer.
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