Musli-Jarushi conflict: Indictment against weapons supplier and two dealers
Police arrested three suspects, including a resident of Umm al-Fahm, who they claim supplied fragmentation grenades and pistols to the Musli and Jarushi crime families. The defense attorney for one of the suspects argued that there is no forensic evidence linking him to the incident. An indictment is expected to be filed against them in the coming days.
A prosecutor's statement was filed today, Thursday, at the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court against three men arrested in recent weeks on suspicion of arms trafficking and possession. The three are suspected of supplying grenades and pistols as part of violent power struggles between criminal organizations in the center of the country.
The arms trafficking case was uncovered at the beginning of the month when detectives stopped a vehicle traveling on Highway 6 near the Nitzanei Oz interchange. During a search of the trunk, two IDF fragmentation grenades were found. The driver, a 35-year-old resident of Bat Yam, was arrested on the spot.
Two weeks later, investigators arrived at the home of another suspect in his thirties in Tel Aviv. During the search, police seized two additional IDF grenades, as well as two 9mm Beretta pistols and full magazines.
The investigation led the police to a third suspect, 21-year-old Ahmad Hariri from Umm al-Fahm, who is suspected of acting as the weapons supplier for the first two suspects. The background to the transfer of the grenades and pistols is linked to the ongoing bloody conflict between the Musli and Jarushi crime families.
Hariri was arrested last week after detectives located him with a bag containing clothes, which led the police representative to argue at the hearing that he planned to escape. During his interrogation, Hariri chose to exercise his right to remain silent. During the remand hearings, it emerged that the police currently have no DNA findings or fingerprints that directly link him to the grenades seized in the vehicles, and the suspicion against him is based on other investigative materials and an intelligence report.
Hariri's defense attorney, lawyer Menashe Salton, criticized the investigators' conduct and argued that if his client posed a danger, the police should have acted immediately upon the issuance of the arrest warrant and not waited. He emphasized the lack of forensic evidence in the case. Despite the defense's arguments, Judge Shani Stern ruled that there is a reasonable and clear suspicion regarding him and that the investigative unit acted efficiently.
Now, after the completion of the evidence collection stage and the filing of the prosecutor's statement, the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office is expected to file an indictment against the three involved in the coming days, along with a request to extend their detention until the end of legal proceedings.
