Suspect nabbed in 2002 assassination of top mobster

A leading member of an Israeli crime family was arrested at Ben-Gurion airport on Sunday and is being held in connection with the 2002 slaying of a top Israeli mobster in Prague, police said Monday.

Nissim Alperon was stopped while on his way to a vacation in Greece, the Walla news site reported, the latest development in a comprehensive, ongoing police probe into the criminal underworld that has been dominating headlines in the country for nearly two weeks.

Alperon is suspected to have been involved in the killing of notorious Israeli mob kingpin Felix Abutbul outside a casino he owned in the Czech capital 13 years ago.

The name of Alperon, 60, apparently came up on a flagged list before he managed to board the plane.

He will remain in custody for at least another six days. Police are expected to request to keep him in prison for longer at an arraignment hearing.

The arrest was the latest in an ongoing underworld arrest operation by Israel Police’s anti-fraud Lahav 433 unit together with the Tel Aviv district police, dubbed “Case 512.”

The operation, which broke open last week, was described as one of the largest underworld busts in Israel’s history and encompasses some 40 individual investigations into crimes committed over the past 12 years by some 50 suspects, police said last week.

Police have already apprehended over 50 suspects across Israel — including crime family head Yitzhak Abergil — with officers seizing vehicles, properties and bank accounts.

Last Monday, police said they had arrested six more people in connection with the case.

In 2002, Abutbul, a promoter of illegal gambling in Israel and abroad, was shot by a bike-riding assailant near his Prague casino. He was killed on the spot.

Fifteen years before his death, Abutbul was infamously involved in the failed abduction of a Nigerian Minister from London.

Abutbul was caught and later sentenced to six years in prison after the minister was discovered inside a wooden box set to ship overseas aboard a plane.

The Alperon crime family was thought to be in a rivalry with the Abutbul crime ring at the time. The move apparently allowed the Abergils to expand their holdings in Israel’s underground gambling operations, according to news reports in 2002.

Israeli officials have vowed in recent years to step up operations against organized crime as a string of car bombings linked to crime syndicates rocked Israeli cities.

Adiv Sterman contributed to this report.