A group of IDF soldiers and three civilians are under arrest on suspicion of assisting Beduin smuggling rings bring narcotics and illicit goods into Israel, police announced on Monday.
Police said the arrests followed two separate but linked lengthy undercover investigation, which had to be cut short due to the deteriorating security situation along the border fence.
Ch.-Supt. Noam Kaizer, head of the Magen anti-narcotics unit which operates along the southern border, said the joint police-Military Police investigation began at the start of the year after intelligence was received.
"We learned that smugglers were getting aid from inside the army, from soldiers serving along the border. After gathering intelligence, we got to suspects, and made the arrests last week," he said.
"Last week\’s terrorist attack [on the fence which killed a Defense Ministry employee] was a catalyst for the arrests. We wanted to continue the undercover investigation, but the situation on the border did not allow it," he added.
The first investigation focused on five IDF soldiers, most of whom are not Beduin, and one civilian, Kaiser added.
He added that the fast pace of the construction of the fence meant that smugglers were increasing efforts to get supplies across into Israel.
"After all of the work we invested, it is a great sense of satisfaction to get to this stage," he said.
The Beersheba Magistrate\’s Court extended the remand of the suspects until Thursday.
Meanwhile, in the second investigation, 12 soldiers and five non-commissioned officers (NCO) have been arrested in one of the the largest drug busts in military history, the military released for publication on Monday.
The 12 consist of five NCOs and seven soldiers, mostly Bedouin trackers, who were arrested over the past two weeks for allegedly assisting Egyptian and Israeli drug smugglers in bypassing military ambushes and patrols along the Egyptian border.
A number of the soldiers were busted by a Military Police undercover agent when they tried selling him NIS 800,000 worth of drugs, including heroin, hashish, ecstasy and cocaine.
A Military Police officer told reporters Monday that drug smuggling was on the rise along Israel\’s border with Egypt as the Defense Ministry nears completion of the construction of a fence along the border. In addition, the officer said it was possible that routes used by drug smugglers were also used by terrorists to infiltrate Israel.
A number of those arrested served as Bedouin trackers in the IDF mostly in the Southern Command.
"The trackers would pass on information regarding military deployments along the border to a Bedouin in Israel who then passed it on to a Bedouin in Egypt," the officer said
The officer said beach tracker received several thousand shekels after each successful drug smuggling operation.