Israeli fugitives linked to South African murders

Yaniv Ben Simon, the Israeli fugitive arrested last week with seven others in Johannesburg, is the second in command of one of Israel’s most ruthless organisations. Legalbrief reports that the daring pre-dawn raid at an upmarket home in Bryanston, Johannesburg, has made headlines around the world and South African authorities have confirmed that the gang is being investigated in connection with at least 12 murders in the country. Sources have told the Sunday Times that they were involved in a further seven attempted murders. Simon appeared in the Randburg Magistrate's Court on Friday for the start of his extradition. Thursday’s arrests have raised concerns over deep Israeli crime links to SA and how drug cartels and criminal syndicates have infiltrated society. The multi-disciplinary team led by Interpol SA, Organised Crime, Detectives, Crime Intelligence and the Special Task Force snared the 46-year-old gang leader attached to the ‘Abergil Organisation’ criminal organisation. Among the items seized were 19 firearms, including five assault rifles; six motorcycles; a signal-jamming device; four drones and eight motor vehicles. Also seized were $40 000 in cash and 3kg of suspected crystal meth. Ben Simon is Israel's most wanted fugitive and has been living in SA since 2007.

News24 reports that he appeared on his own in the dock, where he was also charged with possession of unlicensed firearms and possession of drugs. He was expected to join his co-accused in the same court today for the criminal case. The National Prosecuting Authority's Phindi Mjonondwana said Ben Simon would be charged for the crimes he committed in the country. She did not answer as to when he would face extradition. The Israeli national has been on the Interpol red list since 2015 for conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder. On Friday, court officials tried to bar the media from entering the building. The SA National Editors' Forum and the NPA had to intervene before the court allowed the media access to courtroom 13. The report notes that at least 10 heavily-armed police officials and three SA National Defence Force soldiers were stationed outside the court, and five police officers were inside the courtroom.

The Sunday Times reports that Ben Simon (46) hid out in SA for 15 years and managed to evade law enforcement for at least seven of them, allegedly dealing in drugs and amassing an arsenal of weapons. These included a light delivery truck fitted with a sniper gun port that was fully soundproofed and fitted with a table and a chair. This enabled the gang to allegedly carry out kidnappings, torture and assassinations. Among the more concerning items found by the multidisciplinary team led by Interpol SA, police crime intelligence and organised crime units, the Hawks and the Special Task Force that raided the Bryanston house was a 70-inch monitor hooked up to street-camera surveillance systems similar to those run by private security companies. The gang also allegedly had access to systems that can read car number plates, and it is suspected they could possibly access City of Johannesburg CCTV cameras. A senior official involved in the sting said: ‘This is one of the most dangerous men that Israeli police and US agents have been hunting for a very long time. We could not easily trace him because he has been changing addresses. But his arrest could give us a breakthrough in many cases including kidnappings and assassinations in the country.’ Another officer said they are analysing CCTV footage from ‘prominent assassinations’ to determine whether any of the seized bikes can be linked.

Ben Simon was being sought by the Israeli police for crimes dating back to 2003 and 2004, including a Tel Aviv bombing in which civilians were killed when the Abergil gang tried to kill rival mob boss Ze’eve Rosenstein. The Sunday Times reports that Ben Simon’s boss, Abergil, was found guilty of his role in the explosion and resultant deaths. Israeli police in 2015 placed Ben Simon on the Interpol Red List for the same crime, as well as ‘the importation of 11kg of cocaine from Peru to England, the importation of 1m MDMA tablets from the Netherlands to Australia and several drug deals in Japan’, says the notice.

National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola has warned that SA is a not playground for criminals and fugitives. EWN reports that he commended SAPS’ Interpol National Centre Bureau for their latest breakthrough in tracking down an Ireland fugitive to one of the country’s correctional centres in KZN. Neville van der Westhuizen is currently serving a 15-year-jail sentence in South Africa for murder and is also wanted in Ireland for allegedly murdering two Irish nationals in 2014. The 40-year-old South African man fled Ireland shortly after the murders. In another case, a Botswana fugitive, Wazha Mazinyane, was handed over to authorities in that country last week. Mazinyane fled Botswana after being charged with offences relating to armed robberies in Botswana by Francistown police. ‘These ongoing arrests and takedown operations should send a stern warning to fugitives of justice, who are the country and to criminals in South Africa that police are squeezing the space for them to operate. They should either hand themselves over to authorities, or we should fetch them over ourselves,’ said police spokesperson, Athlenda Mathe.