The State Attorney’s Office has filed indictments against a resident of Shfaram, three residents of Yarka, and three residents of the village of Khadr in Syria for importing, possessing, and trafficking in weapons while taking advantage of the fighting in Syria to smuggle weapons into Israeli territory.
According to the Attorney General’s Office’s statement, “Rami Abu Shah from Shfaram contacted one of the defendants from the village of Khadr and purchased a pistol and a Kalashnikov rifle from him, which he smuggled into Israel. Later, Abu Shah recruited an IDF soldier who served in the area and smuggled 200 rounds of ammunition and another pistol for him.”
According to the indictment, later, Abu Shah transferred thousands of dollars to one of the residents of Khadr in order to purchase heavy weapons.
“The Syrian defendant stored two RPG launchers, ten RPG grenades, an M16 rifle, a Kalashnikov rifle, and two boxes of ammunition in his home… he planned to smuggle them to Israel but was arrested before the plan was completed,” added the indictment.
In early October of this year, according to the indictment, an IDF soldier serving in Syrian territory met with the Syrian defendants who gave him “six M16 rifles, two pistols and a Kalashnikov.” He then met with another IDF soldier in Syrian territory, who transported the weapons to an outpost in the Golan Heights in a military truck.
The defendants from Yarka met the soldier near the outpost and left the scene with the weapons and ammunition. According to the prosecutor’s office, the four are accused of the offenses of importing, possessing, carrying, transporting, purchasing, carrying out a weapons transaction, and conspiring to commit a crime.
