Indictments filed against mob kingpin and 10 of his men in NIS 1.4 million blackmail plot

Indictments have been filed against 11 members and affiliates of the Abu Latif crime family, including its kingpin, Nidal Abu Latif, after police completed their investigation into a particularly brutal blackmail scheme.

The case concerns the powerful gang’s extortion of an anonymous businessman who went into debt during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of more than four years, the victim was subject to threats, blackmail and was forced to work in dire conditions for the gang, prosecutors say.

The suspects were arrested in a raid in December, the result of a year-long operation in which an undercover agent forged relations with senior members of the Abu Latif and Hariri crime families, two of the biggest criminal organizations in Israel.

The covert operation began after the anonymous businessman, who became a state witness, gave testimony to investigators.

According to the indictment, the man’s creditors, father and son Ziyad and Fares Ayyash, who own a tahini factory in Nablus, turned to the Abu Latif family in late 2020 to collect approximately NIS 600,000 (roughly $189,000) on their behalf.

Their contact in the gang, Fadi Artoul, “purchased” the debt from Ayyash and hiked the sum up to NIS 1.4 million (some $440,000), to be split between the creditors and the Abu Latif family.

By the end of March 2021, the gang had managed to squeeze NIS 50,000 ($15,770) from the man. When it became clear he had no more money left to pay, they set their sights on his family. Gunmen linked to the gang opened fire on his parents’ house, shattering windows and damaging the building’s walls, and later fired shots outside his brother’s house as well.

Under threat, the victim’s family paid approximately NIS 850,000 ($268,000) to the gang in cash and post-dated checks. However, the blackmail didn’t stop with money, and Artoul forced the businessman to work almost non-stop for the gang and businesses under its control.

The man was forced to work around the clock, including on weekends, marketing tahini purchased by the criminal group from his creditors, importing and marketing rice and tobacco, transporting meat, and regularly cleaning the gang’s warehouses. His wife was also forced to manage accounts for syndicate members.

The businessman’s attorney Husam Sabit, one of the defendants, is accused of working with Abu Latif.