Police arrest prominent crime family member in connection to double murder
Authorities nab 3 suspects believe to have played role in June gangland killing in Petah Tikva.
By BEN HARTMANHandcuffs (illustrative photo) 370(photo credit: Reuters)
A member of a famous Israeli crime family was arrested along with two other suspects police believe played a role in the gangland killing in Petah Tikva in June that left two men dead.The incident in question was a midday drive-by shooting in a quiet Petah Tikva neighborhood that took the lives of Eli Orkobi, 35, and Eran Partush, 42.The shooting was carried out by two men on a motorcycle in the middle of a school day on the same block as a high school and two kindergartens, drawing public outrage.Orkobi and Partush were killed and a third man wounded at the foot of an apartment building that is well known to Central District police. The building, which is still under construction, includes apartments purchased by crime family head Avi Ruhan as well as reputed underworld figure Chico Ben-Adeh, and Orkobi himself.While the name of the suspects can't be released their arrest follows the arrest on Sunday of Chaya Alperon, the sister of late crime boss Ya’acov Alperon, who police say played a role in the killing. She was released the next day by the Kfar Saba Magistrate’s Court.Chaya Alperon's brother, Ya’acov, was killed when a bomb exploded in his car while he was at a junction in north Tel Aviv in November 2008.No one has been arrested in that crime.Orkobi was an associate of Eli Reuben, who ran a “gray market” bank in the Petah Tikva market. A couple of months before the double murder, Reuben and his associates badly beat Reuben Partush, Alperon’s son (no relation to Eran Partush), driving her to seek revenge, police suspect. On April 30, Reuben was wounded in a shooting in the city.Eran Partush, who was the contractor building the apartments, is not believed to have been a target of the killing, but rather an innocent bystander, as was the third man who was wounded.
