In addition to arms smuggling, the defendants were charged with damaging IDF property, aiding in illegal border crossings, drug offenses, and more.
The Israel Police and Shin Bet seized nearly 40 firearms and arrested nine people during an operation in the Negev, the Attorney General's Office announced.
In a joint operation, they uncovered a network of arms smugglers operating across the Negev, smuggling weapons from Jordan into the West Bank.
Police recovered 34 pistols and four long-barrel weapons during the arrests.
Police announced they had uncovered "a significant infrastructure of a network of arms smugglers from the Jordanian border to the territories of the State of Israel and from there to the territories of Judea and Samaria."
All of the arrestees were from the Negev, with six being from the central Negev town of Bir Hadaj and the rest being from a variety of places.
A significant network
The investigation revealed that members of the network were involved in two significant arms smuggling operations from the Jordanian border in the second half of 2024, using vehicles that crossed the border from Jordan to Israel containing a large number of weapons.
Police revealed that the director of the smuggling operations, Fuaz Altoukhi, 28, a resident of Bir Hadaj in the Negev, paid other members of the network tens of thousands of shekels for their involvement.
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