Massive smuggling and corruption have been uncovered at Ashdod Port in a covert operation of the Israeli Police and Israeli Tax Authority.
The operation lasted over years and exposed tax evasion and money laundering running into nearly one hundred million Shekels. The pirates of the Mediterranean have now been rounded up and criminal proceedings are under way.
Captain Jack Sparrow
How did they do it? It was all thanks to an undercover agent nicknamed “Jack Sparrow”. We are reliably informed by Wikipedia that the original Captain Jack Sparrow was a fictional character played by Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series in 2003-2017. Sparrow represented an ethical pirate with Captain Barbossa as his corrupt foil, though both characters are viewed as both light and dark tricksters.
According to the production notes, Jack Sparrow’s true motives usually remain masked and whether he is honorable or evil depends on the audience’s perspective.
From the Caribbean to the Mediterranean
Fast forward to the pirates of the Mediterranean at the Israeli port of Ashdod in 2020. It seemed those pirates were smuggling large quantities of goods into Israel. In order to found out what was going on, a rookie newly recruited cop newly was trained and put on duty in the Israeli Customs division in the cargo area of the Ashdod port. He was “Jack Sparrow”
Over the years, this modern day “Jack Sparrow” inspected shipments and got acquainted with importers across Israel and the West Bank and the customs release agents serving them.
These people had a hand in smuggling and some had criminal underworld connections. Their requests to Jack Sparrow came thick and fast once he gained their confidence.
They asked him to help by looking the other way when inspecting containers and confirming that their contents matched customs import declarations for customs duty purposes.
Bribes totaling of hundreds of thousands of shekels changed hands. Some bribes went to “Jack Sparrow”, other bribes went to dirty customs officials and transport ministry officials who were eventually rounded up.
How to be devious
Creative ways were used to smuggle in items. For example, tobacco products were hidden in dolls. Fakes of expensive brand clothing items were hidden among other cheap items of clothing and expensive car parts in cars not approved by the Transport Ministry.
Weapons and ammunition were stashed away in rolled up carpets. Smaller weapon parts were concealed in crates of screws and machinery.
Big quantities of cosmetics not approved by the Health Ministry were concealed in barrels of pickled cucumbers. Also smuggled in were large quantities of dangerous drugs, various fake replicas of items, toys and other baby products not approved by the Standards Institute.
Security services in the South and central Israel were tipped off about these irregular imports and the activities of “Jack Sparrow”. The total value of these smuggled items are estimated at billions of Shekels.
Enough is enough
After four and a half years there was enough evidence against the criminal gangs suspected of involvement in smuggling and distributing these items across Israel. So the undercover operation was brought to an end and hundreds of security personnel took action including Police, tactical Border Police, sniffer dogs and the IDF.
They entered the homes of dozens of suspects, and arrested and searched them. They also seized documents, cash and property suspected of being acquired with the ill gotten gains.
Alleged offenses were then investigated, including money laundering, bribing state officials, smuggling contraband and other crimes. These criminal proceedings are still under way.