Undercover cop reveals huge cocaine ring in south Tel Aviv
Posing as a handyman with a serious cocaine habit, an undercover agent spent months recording cocaine deals in south Tel Aviv, pausing from his job only to fight in Op. Protective Edge.
By BEN HARTMANCocaine, heroine and cash seized by police from drug dealers during an early morning Wednesday raid in southern Israel.(photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
Posing as a handyman with a serious cocaine habit, an undercover agent spent months making cocaine deals in south Tel Aviv, eventually leading to the arrests of dozens of suspected dealers on Sunday.Describing the undercover operation on Sunday, the Tel Aviv police said the cop was deployed in the area of the central bus station back on July 1, after what police described Sunday as a wave of murders, attempted murders, and violent assaults in the area as rival drug gangs from Lod, Ramle, Jaffa, and Taibe fought to get a piece of the cocaine trade in the area, which brings in tens of thousands of shekels per day.Over the following months, posing as a repairman, the cop managed to make dozens of deals with around 60 different dealers Tel Aviv police said Sunday, after his deployment ended and cops began carrying out arrest raids across the district.By mid-morning 38 suspected dealers had been arrested, though police managed to seize only around 20 grams of cocaine.Over his several months undercover, the cop rarely took a break, except in the middle of the summer – when he was called up to the reserves and spent three weeks in Gaza fighting in Operation Protective Edge.He returned to the central bus station area after his discharge, still healing from an injury sustained in an incident during the war in which one of his fellow soldiers was killed.On Sunday, with the arrest raids, his operation officially ended, and he will be sent back to his station outside the Tel Aviv area.Over the past few years Tel Aviv and Central District police have carried out a series of long-term undercover operations of this sort against dealers. Most bring in dozens of suspects, though for the most part those arrested are low-level street dealers and not criminals higher up the food chain.
