The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court extends by a week the remand of the six suspects in a smuggling operation that brought hundreds of millions of shekels’ worth of diamonds into Israel hidden in suitcases.
Police said earlier in a statement that the suspects “conspired, planned, and operated for a number of years smuggling diamonds into the State of Israel worth hundreds of millions of shekels in violation of the law and without reporting to the competent authorities.”
The investigation, being handled by the Lahav 433 national crime unit, found that an Israeli citizen who had been living aboard entered Israel six years ago with diamonds concealed in his luggage, police said.
Police believe the suspect, a worker at a Russian factory owned by Russian-Israeli diamond billionaire and philanthropist Lev Leviev, then sold the diamonds without reporting the transactions to tax authorities.
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, November 5, 2018
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