In response to the spike in mob-related violence over the last seven weeks, police have redoubled their efforts across the country, arresting known gangsters and deploying in larger numbers.
More than 200 additional officers have been assigned to the streets of Netanya in an effort to prevent additional violence following the hit attempt on alleged mobster Charlie Abutbul in the city last Monday.
An early-morning raid at a home in Netanya on Tuesday netted a small cache of illegal weapons, as police focus not only on the crime families involved in the recent shootings, but the firearms readily available on the street.
"The guns were found outside of the home in an adjacent courtyard garden," a police spokesman said.
Also in Netanya on Tuesday, police kept pressure on the Abutbul family, arresting Aviv Abutbul and bringing his cousin Francois Abutbul in for questioning over their alleged connection with the stabbing two weeks ago of Zion Rubin, whose testimony resulted in charges being filed against Aviv and Francois in November 2006.
Adam Abutbul, Francois's brother and another suspect in the stabbing, was arrested at Ben-Gurion Airport last Wednesday as he returned from New York to visit his father, Charlie, in the hospital.
It is unclear if the arrests, linked to the December 2004 murder of 18-year-old Ra'anan Levi - allegedly stabbed by Francois outside a nightclub at Kibbutz Shefayim near Netanya for flirting with a friend's girlfriend - are connected to the ongoing unrest in the coastal town. Nonetheless, Netanya police seem intent on reining in the Abutbul family and sending the message that they are not beyond the law.
Police also expressed interest in Shai Sharazi, son of alleged mobster Rico Sharazi on Tuesday, bringing him to a Netanya police station for questioning. Sharazi was released two hours later, telling reporters, "They brought me in for no reason, I'm not connected to anything. They're just doing their job."
The Sharazis' restaurant in the city, Gehalim, was also given a brief reprieve on Tuesday, as a Kfar Saba court postponed its decision on to whether the restaurant should be shut down. Police had asked the court for permission to close Gehalim as a result of the rise in violence in the city.
In Jerusalem on Monday, three men were arrested after behaving suspiciously near the vehicle of a known mobster near the Crown Plaza Hotel, a police spokesman said on Tuesday. Though no bomb was found, police believe the men may have been gathering information in order to blow up the car, which belonged to brothers Yossi and Sam Malka.
Relations between the Jerusalem-based Malka brothers and Netanya's Abergil crime family soured in July after Abergil boss Yitzhak and other members of his organization were indicted in the US. Gabi Ben-Harush, a member of the Malkas' syndicate, is said to have cooperated with US agents.
The three suspects, whose remands were extended by a Jerusalem court on Monday, are still in custody.
Also on Tuesday, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced eight men belonging to the Nasser crime syndicate to heavy prison terms, putting the ringleader, Marwan Nasser, behind bars for 15 years.
The court noted that law enforcement agencies are struggling with the phenomena of organized crime, and expressed a willingness to help in combating it.
"This act and these measures are aimed at supplying the law enforcement agencies and the courts with the necessary tools to fights organized crime," the court said in a statement.
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