WORLD> Middle East
|
WORLD> Middle East
|
|
Israeli mob boss killed in Tel Aviv blast
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-18 15:29 TEL AVIV, Israel -- A car explosion in central Tel Aviv killed one of Israel's top mafia kingpins on Monday, threatening to unleash an all-out war in Israel's increasingly violent underworld.
Israeli police identified the dead man as Yaakov Alperon, known informally as "Don Alperon", the head of one of the country's most powerful crime families. Medics said three bystanders were also lightly wounded, including a 13-year-old boy. Israelis are accustomed to violence with their Palestinian neighbors but have traditionally felt relatively safe from violent crime. In recent years, however, mob wars also have also plagued Israeli towns and cities. Rival underworld gangs have waged bloody battles for control of gambling and protection rackets, targeting each other with bullets, bombs and even anti-tank missiles in violence that has killed dozens of gangsters and at least eight bystanders in the last three years. Monday's attack was by far the most high-profile incident to date. "An extremely serious event took place today, and its consequences are completely clear to us," Tel Aviv police commander Ilan Franco said at the scene. "It likely happened because of an internal conflict within the Tel Aviv crime world ... If there are consequences to this attack we will have to deal with them." Alperon, Israel's most famous criminal, had also become something of a cultural icon. He and his brothers have given frequent TV interviews and were parodied on comedy shows. His immediate family even took part in a reality TV show. Organized crime, long overshadowed by the Arab-Israeli conflict, has become such a part of everyday life that Israel has its own "Sopranos"-style TV series, "The Arbitrator," in which even synagogues are no refuge from hit men. The brazen, midday assassination quickly dominated the news, pushing Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza and a summit between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders off the airwaves. TV stations broke into their scheduled programming and dispatched reporters to Alperon's home in an upper-class Tel Aviv suburb. Alperon's rental car went up in flames around noon as it was traveling on one of Tel Aviv's main thoroughfares. Police closed the street and TV footage showed his lifeless body slumped out the door. The bloodied body was wearing the same polo shirt that Alperon was seen sporting earlier in the day at a Tel Aviv courthouse, where his son, Dror, was facing extortion charges. The younger Alperon was expected to be released from custody on Tuesday for his father's funeral. Alperon had many enemies, including convicted drug lord Zeev Rosenstein, who himself has survived at least seven assassination attempts, and rival families that battled the Alperons over a lucrative bottle recycling racket. Bottle recycling adds up to a $5 million-a-year industry, according to estimates by police and environmental groups. Police say criminals sell restaurants protection in exchange for empties, which leave no paper trail and offer crime families a relatively legitimate source of income. Alperon has also had an open account with another gangster, Amir Mulner, dating to a January 2006 arbitration summit that went wrong. Knives and guns were drawn and Mulner emerged with a stab wound to the neck that was widely attributed to Alperon. Alperon went undercover, along with his son, and police searched the country in vain for two months before both Alperons struck a deal to turn themselves in voluntarily. They were never charged. In the past, rival families would settle their scores quietly. But as the pot gets richer they are getting bolder, taking more risks and posing a greater threat to public safety. Most crime bosses now travel with bodyguards in armored vehicles. Yossi Sedbon, a former Tel Aviv police chief, told Army Radio that further bloodshed was likely. "This battle between gangs of criminals will continue and the family will make great efforts to avenge his death," he said. Last May, Yaakov Alperon's older brother, Nissim, survived the ninth assassination attempt against him. A three-man hit team dispatched to get him was intercepted by police, and in the ensuing gunbattle a policeman was seriously wounded and one of the gunman was killed. The mob violence has underscored police's inability, and even unwillingness, to stop organized crime. Policemen have been caught feeding information to the mob, and last year, the national police chief was forced to resign after a government commission found he ignored ties between senior officers and underworld figures. |
