Cops bust 3 suspected of plotting gangland bombing

Arrests comes a few days after son of crime boss was shot dead in Tel Aviv, putting police on high alert

Police on Thursday arrested three men near Ashkelon suspected of attempting to carry out a gangland assassination.

Two of the suspects, Tel Aviv residents aged 41 and 33, were riding a motorcycle and had three explosive devices in their possession. They allegedly purchased the bombs from the third suspect, a 20-year-old Ashkelon resident, Israel Radio reported.

The arrests came less than a week after the son of a crime boss was shot dead in Tel Aviv, putting police on high alert for possible retaliation.

Shai Shirazi, 30, was mortally wounded in the Saturday shooting attack on Moshe Sneh Street in northern Tel Aviv. Unidentified assailants pulled up to the victim’s Mazda 3 at a red light and fired a large number of rounds into the vehicle. A second passenger, 45, was lightly wounded.

Both men were taken to the nearby Ichilov hospital, where Shirazi was pronounced dead. The assailants fled the scene. Police scrambled to close Moshe Sneh Street and deployed roadblocks around the city, especially along likely escape routes toward Highway 5 and the city’s northern exits.

Shirazi, known for links to the underworld, was the son of Rico Shirazi, a purported crime kingpin in the Sharon area. Officials described the incident as an apparent ambush by one criminal gang against another. The shooters are believed to have called the deceased man and asked to meet, luring him into the trap.

Police have raised the level of alert in the Tel Aviv region, while national Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich has promised to bolster the manpower available to the Tel Aviv police to help prevent an escalation in violence between criminal organizations.

“We’re expecting bloodshed,” one senior officer in the Tel Aviv police was quoted as telling the Walla news site. “We will have to stretch our forces.”

Police have waged a massive campaign over recent years to crack down on organized crime, after a wave of gangland car bombings and other assassination attempts brought the issue to the fore in 2013 and 2014.