Alert cop may have prevented another mob hit in central Israel

An alert police officer apparently prevented a mob hit in Yavneh late Monday.

The officer noticed a motorcyclist stopping on the side of a road in the central Israeli city and placing a package in the bushes that lined the sidewalk, according to the Israel Hayom daily.

The officer followed the motorcyclist a short while before calling Central District police headquarters with his suspicions.

Officers found a bomb in the bushes. The motorcyclist was apprehended after a brief car chase.

Additional arrests would be made in the coming days, police said.

Some two weeks ago, the Tel Aviv Police prevented another assassination attempt by criminal organizations in the same part of Yavneh.

Israeli officials have vowed to crack down on organized crime in recent years following a spate of car bombings that rocked parts of Israel. During 2015, police made a series of arrests involving dozens of members of crime organizations across the country.

In March, a man known to police — who had reportedly run afoul of two major organized crime families by turning state witness — was killed in an underworld car bombing in Tel Aviv. A week earlier, a 30-year-old Israeli woman was shot dead in front of her three young children in Beersheba in a mob murder.

In January, three people were injured in a Tel Aviv suburb when a car exploded and burst into flames in a suspected underworld hit attempt.