A local council head and his son in the North are set to be arrested and indicted for a violent extortion campaign against businesses, the Israel Police said Monday.
A Lahav 433 (National Crime Unit) investigation found that the councilman, 64, and his son, 24, allegedly were part of a crime family, the police said, adding that the father served both as a local politician and as an arm of the crime organization. The suspects are both residents of Rameh, east of Karmiel.
The victims were local business owners who were extorted and threatened on behalf of the broader criminal enterprise. The councilman’s son placed explosives in front of his victims’ homes and was involved in several shooting incidents.
How did the father-son extortion duo threaten local businesses?
The son blackmailed several victims who were in debt to his father, although the affairs were reportedly already settled through a criminal organization, the police said.
The suspects had previously been detained, and their detention was extended while the arrest and filing of an indictment by the Northern District Attorney’s Office was finished.
Elsewhere in the North, two crime organization squad members were arrested during police operations in Nazareth on Sunday night after they attempted to flee the scene, the Northern District Police said Monday.
The gang members allegedly shot at several businesses and set a car on fire when police officers received a report about the arson. Law enforcement identified the culprits when they saw two men on a scooter with a Glock pistol.
The gunmen, residents of Nazareth and in their 20s, attempted to flee, but they “collided” with the police cruiser, the police said. They were arrested and hospitalized. One of the suspects was seriously injured, and the other was moderately injured.
“Successfully catching criminals in the act is the aim of the Northern District police officers who carry out operations on all levels, covertly and openly, with the aim of thwarting criminal activity and for a quick response to any event,” the police said.
The police have faced an escalation of violence in the Arab sector this year, with much of it connected to criminal organizations. Since the beginning of the year, at least 144 people have been killed in the Arab Israeli community. Many of the victims were killed by gunfire and were under the age of 30. The highest number of crime deaths on record in the Arab sector have occurred in 2023.
A man in his mid-30s was severely wounded in a shooting incident in Umm el-Fahm on Sunday night and was taken to Emek Medical Center in Afula. The background to the incident was criminal, the police said.