Jim Greenhill
By
Ricardo Swire
Medinat Yisra’el, or State of Israel, is located in the Mediterranean Sea’s eastern end. The government operates from Jerusalem, the self-proclaimed capital, its status as Israel’s official city not widely recognized internationally.
Northward lays the Galilee mountain range, made famous by the Holy Bible and accounts of Jesus Christ. According to the Ben Gurion International Airport police Unit 747, based in Petah Tiqwa Israel, approximately thirteen million passengers transit that individual Aerodrome annually.
Israel’s internal security mechanism is calibrated to defend borders against Lebanon northward, Syria northeastward, Jordan southeastward and Egypt in the southwest. One revised intelligence report has highlighted cocaine as the most prominent social drug used in the Jewish State’s nightclub environment. Hashish, opioids and other illicit substances are also readily available, supply meeting demand. National records identified the highest percentage of abusers as middle-class professionals. Israel’s social phenomenon mirrors America, UK, Canada and Europe’s drug trafficking stresses.
Among underworld characters Israeli traffickers are stellar middle persons. They have a unique capability to open “Cash Boxes,” shipping containers used to secretly store several hundred kilos of cocaine. Western Europe’s consignments journey along Balkan smuggling routes, sub-routes comprised of northern, southern and central European entry points playing critical roles. Italy is regarded as a principal entry point. Israeli traffickers collaborate with Apulian Sacra Corona Unita, Sicilian Mafia Cosa Nostra, Calabrian Ndrangheta and Neapolitan Camorra members.
In 2009 the United Nations registered sixty-three kilos of cocaine seized by Israeli counter-narcotics agents. In 2010 Israel’s interdiction increased to seventy-one kilos. 2011 noted a high two hundred and sixty-four kilos seized. In 2012 one hundred and seventy-one kilos were interdicted. In April 2014 Israel’s Serious & International Crime Unit (SICU) policed the detention of four Israeli traffickers at a Brazilian airport, 2.5 kilos of cocaine found in their possession. Israeli Police’s Central Investigative Unit (CIU) also discovered that the criminal network used an international route that masked associated drug courier movements.
Cocaine departed Paraguay and traveled to Brazil. The shipments continued onward to Madrid, Cairo and Taba, Egypt crossing from Sinai to Eilat in Israel. A 2016 US Attorney for Massachusetts document identified a thirty-three year old Israeli male trafficker, extradited from Poland to America, charged in Boston with drug trafficking and international money laundering. In October 2015 an international inter-agency undercover operation found that the thirty-three year old Israeli conspired with a Jordanian trafficker, to smuggle Colombian cocaine valued US $2.5 million. Drug shipments routed from Bogota thru Boston to Israel.
