7 arrested for planning mob hit on Jerusalem resident

Police on Sunday said they had arrested seven mob members who were planning to carry out a hit on a Jerusalem resident.

The arrests came three weeks ago, but details were only now permitted for publication.

The seven were from a group known as the “Jerusalem gang.” The suspects, including the alleged leader of the gang Yitzhak Bar-Moha, face charges of conspiracy to commit a crime.

The arrests prevented “actual harm to human life, both the man whom the suspects acted against and to innocent passersby who could have been harmed,” the police statement said.

Police believe the motive for the attack was a criminal underworld dispute with the intended target that dates back years. The intended victim was not named.

The suspects, who come from Yavneh, Tel Aviv and the Beit Safafa neighborhood of Jerusalem, were arrested three weeks ago with their detention being periodically extended. On Sunday the gag order was lifted after they were brought to court, where prosecutors filed preliminary documents ahead of formal charges.

The investigation began after an officer from the police central investigations unit noticed two suspects carrying a tool bag who hid behind some bushes at the entrance to a building in the south of the city where their intended target lives. A search of the location found a camera installed on a tree aimed at the gated entrance to the building’s parking lot.

Two days later cops noticed the head of the gang surveying the building from his car while accompanied by a resident of Beit Safafa who owns a garage, police said. A few hours later the Beit Safafa resident arrived at the building with a bag and entered the car park. As soon as he came out the suspect was arrested by detectives and on the same evening the rest of those involved were arrested and brought in for questioning, the statement said.

Police, concerned that an explosive device may have been planted in the car park, evacuated residents from the building and called in sappers to search the area, but no device was found.

Among other things, the suspects installed the video camera and attempted to duplicate the remote control for the gate to the building’s parking lot.

Police said that the chain of events and details uncovered during the investigation pointed to an attempted hit on a resident of the building that was prevented by the investigation.

Last week police revealed that an undercover agent who was gunned down earlier this year in an apparent gangland murder had successfully infiltrated crime syndicates, foiled plans for a string of attacks and helped gather information that led to the arrest of dozens of suspected underworld criminals.

Anton Roman, 43, was found dead in a field in the central Israeli city of Rehovot in June. His body bore signs of serious violence.