Eight young Israelis were arrested by Israel Police in late July for kidnapping a foreign national from China and stealing about NIS 700,000 from him, Israel Police announced on Thursday.
On July 20, a gang of masked Israeli youths pretending to be police officers grabbed the worker and a backpack out of his vehicle near the HaZahav Mall in Rishon Lezion and took them into a commercial van away from the scene.
The district command decided to declare a unique operational preparation for kidnapping incidents, which includes a wide-ranging technological operational effort by the Central Unit in order to quickly find the suspects and the kidnapped person. The manhunt included extensive searches and the deployment of checkpoints.
A forensics team that checked the car found that the vehicle belonged to a foreign national from China who provided workers from China to contractors in the construction industry in Israel.
Within a matter of hours, police investigators found the kidnappers' vehicle in Beersheba with a fake gun inside. The investigators found the suspects in a rented apartment in the city that apparently served as a hideout.
After midnight, an operation force of Central Unit detectives burst into the apartment found five of the suspects, all residents of Ashkelon, and transferred them immediately for questioning in order to find the victim. The questioning revealed that the suspects had dropped the victim off on the road between Rishon Lezion and Beersheba.
The victim walked all the way from Gan Yavne to Or Yehuda, eventually arriving at a police station and giving testimony about the incident. According to Google Maps, it takes nearly seven and a half hours to walk that distance.
Three additional suspects were arrested later in the investigation. Police could not find the money allegedly stolen from the victim. The suspects were investigated on charges of kidnapping, robbery and aggravated assault.
This week, police announced that indictments would be filed against seven of the suspects and requested that their arrests be extended until the end of the trial.