Violent, sophisticated, ruthless: The main actors in affair 512 have arrived at the prison

Case 512, the flagship case of the police, came to an end after a long legal campaign.

The case, which deals with the criminal war waged by Yitzhak Abergil's organization, and especially with the assassination attempts in Tel Aviv in 2003, went through many upheavals, including when one of the defendants fled abroad and another was found dead in prison.

These are the convicts and their punishments

Shlomi Heller

03/07/2022

Sunday, 03 July 2022, 19:11 Updated: 21:17

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In the video: The sentence of Yitzhak Abergil (Photo: Yotam Ronen)

After ten years of investigation and seven years of legal proceedings against the defendants in the flagship case of the Israel Police and the State Attorney's Office, case 512, last week the senior members of the criminal organization of Yitzhak Abergil were sentenced, and they were sent to prison for decades.

The serious indictment filed by the Central and Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office in 2015 unfolded a series of charges against 18 defendants in a case that included offenses of murder, attempted murder, importing and trading and supplying drugs within a criminal organization in a number of countries.

Since then, however, the case has undergone many upheavals.

During the legal proceedings against them, one of the defendants in the case, Golan Avitan, and another defendant, Jojo Levy, was found dead in his cell in prison.

Yitzhak Abergil's criminal organization was one of the most organized and brutal in Israel, and the battles for control between it and other organizations claimed the lives of quite a few uninvolved civilians, which was a significant catalyst for law enforcement agencies to collapse the organization and bring its heads behind bars.

Yitzhak Abergil

Abergil, 53, originally a resident of Lod and a resident of Arad until his arrest, began his career in the criminal world at an early age, with extraordinary audacity, and behind him a series of robberies he committed, setting up several outlets across the country as a minor.

In his testimony in court he said that at the age of 13 he was equipped with a gun and shot at the school where he studied, and a security guard at the club who refused to let him in.

At the age of 17, he was convicted of murdering a Lod resident with whom he quarreled over a drug dealing business and was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

At the age of 30, after his release from prison, when he seemed to have decided to abandon the criminal world, he returned to it and befriended the criminal Zeev Rosenstein and the gambling business.

A few years later he quarreled with Rosenstein, and his activities concentrated on running an international drug trafficking network.

Abergele, dripping with charisma and highly persuasive, managed to recruit criminals to work for him and established one of the largest criminal organizations the state knew.

He became a nuisance for the law enforcement system with a series of murders and assassination attempts by his opponents through his men.

"Isaac always had a strategy that we would take over the whole country," a state witness known as Bombay testified about Abergele's ambitions during his trial.

"Whether it's in the gray area, the intention in the gray market, whether in gambling, whether in everything, this is his strategy - he planned in his initial strategy that for him he would take over the whole country, that in every city he would have his own representative and run through him."

Abergele in court, last week (Photo: Reuven Castro)

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Since his release from prison in 1999, Israeli law enforcement agencies have been monitoring Abergel's criminal activities, but only a series of murders and assassination attempts in the decade after his release have motivated them to step up in the war against the criminal organization.

More on Walla!

Flag case in the war on organized crime: Yitzhak Abergil will serve 3 life sentences and another 30 years in prison

To the full article

Attempted assassination of Rosenstein

The double assassination attempt on the criminal Zeev Rosenstein in central Tel Aviv in 2003, by members of Abergil's organization, occurred after Abergil suspected that the former was behind the assassination of his brother, Yaakov Abergil.

The incident claimed the lives of three civilians and was a groundbreaking and dramatic event that was at the center of court hearings in Case 512 and the sentences.

The relationship between Yitzhak Abergil and the criminal Zeev Rosenstein knew ups and downs.

Initially, there was a fruitful collaboration between the two in the field of gambling, but later a bitter and passionate conflict arose between them, which escalated with the assassination attempt on Rosenstein.

The attempt occurred in Plummer Square in Tel Aviv using a booby-trapped vehicle, which was parked near an office owned by Rosenstein, causing only his injury.

Abergel's men did not give up and a few months later carried out another assassination attempt by burying a powerful explosive device on the roof of Change on Yehuda Halevi Street, which Rosenstein used to visit frequently.

As a result of the bomb blast, three civilians were killed, including the son of the change owner, and about 51 people were injured, including Rosenstein.

Arena The assassination attempt on Rosenstein on Yehuda Halevi Street, September 2003 (Photo: Official website, Barkai Wolfson)

Rosenstein's assassination attempt was rightly defined as the most serious criminal attack in Israel at the time.

The court ruled that Abergele "played a crucial role in the incident. He was the initiator, the stakeholder and the one who dictated the war on Rosenstein and the methods of operation."

He was convicted of murder, running a criminal organization and conspiracy to commit a crime and sentenced to three life sentences and another 15 years.

Abergele's fortune is difficult to estimate accurately, but forfeiture of property worth more than NIS 225 million after the indictment was filed in 2015, can attest a little to the extent of Abergele's criminal activity in those days.

Meir Abergil

Abergil, 68, from the village of Truman, Yitzhak Abergil's older brother, also got involved with the law enforcement system like other siblings in the family.

In 2008 he was extradited to the United States and served a three-year prison sentence for money laundering, extortion, murder and drug trafficking.

He then returned to Israel and signed a plea deal as part of case 512 in the offense of conspiracy to commit a crime and was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, but last year was released from prison after his sentence was shortened.

According to the indictment in case 512, Meir directed and supervised the criminal activities of his brother's criminal organization, mainly in the field of finance, alongside and under him.

As part of his status as director of the organization, Meir Abergil worked to form coalitions with various criminal groups, including the Avi Rohan group and the Yoram Elal group.

A released prisoner.

Meir Abergil (Photo: Niv Aharonson)

Avi Rohan

Rohan, a 57-year-old resident of Hod Hasharon, became involved in the criminal world about three decades ago, while officially earning a living as a grocery store owner in Pardes Katz.

He began engaging in interest-bearing loans, gambling and drugs alongside legitimate businesses in the real estate and construction industry, and established a small and violent criminal organization in the Hod Hasharon area. Rohan, who was under police surveillance, was arrested several times in those years on suspicion of involvement in criminal incidents. Farhi and Dekel Tzafar in 2013 - however he was released a few days later and managed to maneuver the law enforcement system for over a decade.

He will be released from prison, apparently at the age of 82. Rohan (Photo: Niv Aharonson)

When Abergele was released from prison he enlisted his spirit for his organization, and it became near us today as part of their collaboration in the war against rival criminal organizations, and partnerships in the drug business around the world.

In 2013, Rohan even took Abergel's place and became the head of the organization in Israel.

He was later arrested as part of Case 512 in which he was proven to be a senior partner in the management of Abergel's criminal organization.

The testimony of a state witness known as Tully pointed to Rohan's involvement in the assassination attempt at the Change in Tel Aviv, which this week led to a severe sentence of 25 years behind bars.

Rohan will be released from prison, apparently at the age of 82.

Moti Hussein

Hussein, 43, from Rishon Lezion, grew up in his youth in the United States under the patronage of his father, Aharon Hussein, who fled Israel after being sentenced to murder.

Motti made a living from drug trafficking, and upon his return to Israel he mingled with senior criminals in Israel, led by Yitzhak Abergil, and became active in his organization as a man to carry out "special and violent missions."

At one point he was even marked as his successor.

His imprisonment was extended due to his dangerousness.

Hussein (Photo: Meged Guzni)

Hussein admitted and was convicted, as part of a plea deal, of conspiring with Abergel and others to deliberately cause the death of David Bitton known as "Daydona", by way of "Little Red Riding Hood" outside a club in Holon in 2003, after seducing Bitton to leave. And helped the assassins complete the operation and eliminate Bitton.

Despite his status in Abergel's criminal organization, Hussein was sentenced to five years in prison in 2018 as part of a plea deal, but in February this year, following an appeal filed by the prosecution against his release, the Supreme Court left behind bars claiming he and his actions were dangerous.

Israel Ozifa

Ozifa, 63, from Ramla, had no criminal record until his arrest at the outbreak of the investigation.

However, the investigation material revealed that he served as a director of Abergel's criminal organization, the European arm of the organization's international drug smuggling network.

As part of his role, Ozifa will maintain hiding apartments for members of the organization in Spain and Belgium.

In addition, he was involved in the smuggling from the country of Micha Ben Harush, one of the perpetrators of the assassination attempt on Rosenstein, who escaped due to the fear that the police would follow in his footsteps, and therefore stayed in a hiding place in Spain for a year and a half.

A released prisoner.

Uzipa (Photo: Reuven Castro)

During June 2019, while Uzifah was released, he arrived at the courtroom in the Tel Aviv District Court and smuggled Yitzhak Abergil a dose of drugs in front of the prosecutor, and was sentenced to six months in prison.

For his involvement in the smuggling of Ben Harush from Israel, he was sentenced to 41 months in prison for running retroactively, in accordance with a plea agreement with the State Attorney's Office.

He is currently a released prisoner.

Ilan Ben Sheetrit

Ben Sheetrit, a 54-year-old resident of Eilat, is the head of an independent criminal organization in the southern city, which managed gambling clubs, gray market loans, extortion and attempted murder.

He became a sponsor of Yitzhak Abergil's criminal organization in that he and his brother Dudu Ben Sheetrit served as senior executives in the organization in the field of drug offenses in the Japanese and European arms, and were part of the Eilat group in Israel.

Sentenced to an additional seven years in prison.

Ben Sheetrit (Photo: Shai Makhlouf)

In 2016, Ben Sheetrit was sentenced to 26 years in prison, while at the same time his trial in case 512 was conducted. In criminal organizations.

In addition, they were convicted of tax evasion and aiding and abetting tax evasion, all as part of a criminal organization activity.

As part of a plea deal, Ilan Ben Sheetrit was sentenced to an additional seven years in prison, while his brother, who is serving a life sentence for murder, was sentenced to an additional ten years in prison.

Sami Bitton

Bitton, a Canadian-Israeli businessman who lived abroad in recent years and died of her condition in 2020, was accused of being involved in a drug deal by the Abergel criminal organization, in which about 800 kilograms of cocaine were purchased and he worked to launder money within the organization and for the funds. Received from the transaction.

Bitton pleaded guilty and was convicted, as part of a plea deal, of the offenses of providing means for the crime as well as money laundering and tax offenses.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, fined NIS 1 million, NIS 4.5 million in compensation to the families of the victims in Rosenstein's assassination attempt, and two real estate properties in Petah Tikva worth NIS 3.6 million were confiscated.

Golan Avitan

Avitan, a 54-year-old resident of Ashdod, is a member of Abergil's organization, and is accused of being one of the organizers of the assassination attempts of the criminal Zeev Rosenstein, by providing the signs that activated the explosive devices in the two assassination attempts, killing three civilians and dozens injured.

After being arrested as part of the investigation, he was released from detention on bail of NIS 12 million, but soon fled the country to Morocco, where he hid until his arrest by the local police.

It is estimated that he will soon be extradited to Israel for further legal proceedings in his case.

Ofer Bohdana

Bohdana, a 41-year-old resident of Ashdod, is a member of the "Ashdod group," which operated under the auspices of Yitzhak Abergil's criminal organization, and was an anonymous local criminal in Ashdod until his arrest.

After his arrest and the filing of the indictment, his significant part in carrying out the criminal attack that shook Tel Aviv became clear, and Bohdana was accused of burying the explosives over the roof of the change.

In their decision, the judges cited the testimony of a state witness known as Bombay, according to which "Bohdana's affiliation with the executive group led by Bombay and his willingness to take part in this event paved the way for his entry into the organization."

Bohdana was sentenced to three life terms, similar to the head of the organization, Yitzhak Abergil.

Jojo Levy

Levy, 39, died in Ashdod and was a member of the Ashdod group.

He was accused of leading the charge in the assassination attempt at Change, observing the scene and reporting to offender Shlomi Vazna, who activated the charge by remote control.

Vasana's name is missing from the indictment as he was found dead in 2009 from a bomb blast he assembled.

Levy died in his cell in Ayalon Prison in 2020.

Yitzhak Abergil in court, last week (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Moshe Malul

, 51, resident of Haifa,

, 63, resident of Haifa,

, 57, resident of Haifa and

, 61, resident of Beer Sheva, were soldiers in the drug field and were involved in huge drug deals in the European and Japanese arms and tax offenses.

Moshe Malul pleaded guilty and was convicted in a plea bargain and sentenced to seven years in prison, including a total of three years for the prison sentence he is serving, as well as a suspended sentence, a fine and forfeiture in the amount of NIS 35,000.

Zakaria Edri pleaded guilty and was convicted as part of a plea deal in an amended indictment of drug transactions outside the framework of a criminal organization and was sentenced to 36 months in prison, probation and a fine of NIS 40,000.

Yaakov Ben Sheetrit was also charged with aggravated sabotage against State Witness YM in the wake of a dispute over control of the Japanese arm in the drug field, after stabbing him outside a club in Japan in 2006. Ben Sheetrit was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Avi Locker was sentenced to five years in prison.

The flagship file of the State Attorney's Office and the police.

The court hearing, last week (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Aharon Susan

, 58, from Yavne,

, 55, from Bat Yam, and

, 51, a resident of Holon, were members of the Bat Yamite gang, headed by Yaniv Ben Simon and served as another branch of Yitzhak Abergil's criminal organization.

The three assisted in the assassination attempt against Rosenstein on Yehuda Halevi Street.

Although Susan "messed up" in locating an apartment that would overlook the scene of the assassination, he was aware of the entire plan, and was therefore sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Amos, who parked his home and rented his apartment for the benefit of assembling the explosive device in the booby-trapped vehicle, was sentenced to five years in prison.

Sabah, who was a partner and planner of the assassination attempts on Rosenstein, was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The head of the Bat Yam gang, Yaniv Ben Simon, was one of the organizers of the assassination and a senior criminal from the city of Bat Yam, also fled the country and so far has not been located by the police.

Case 512 has been accompanied over the years and led by a team of attorneys from two districts, headed by Adv. Nissim Mirom of the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office. The team from the Tel Aviv Attorney's Office included Adv. Sarig Papu.

The team at the Central District Attorney's Office included Adv. Michal Mazor Koller, Nathaniel Bojo, Hila Cohen, Dana Alon and Uriah Tohmi.

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