Assassination attempt on Route 6: criminals set up a fake police roadblock
An assassination attempt on a major road earlier this week likely targeted an underworld money launderer for a NIS 500,000 loan, according to a preliminary investigation that also revealed that several coordinated teams built a fake police roadblock to stop the target’s Lamborghini before attacking him and another man. who is with him
Two East Jerusalem residents, ages 46 and 31, were injured in the incident early Tuesday morning on Route 6 near the Ben Shemen interchange, one seriously and the other moderately. The attackers intercepted their luxury car and beat them, then a motorcyclist shot them while medics were treating them.
Two Ramle residents were arrested, and a source familiar with the investigation told Channel 12 on Wednesday that “several more arrests are expected, [il y a] double-digit number of suspects. »
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Israeli media reported initial police findings that the target was a man who acts as a money launderer for criminal organizations and owns a garage for expensive cars. A year ago, he borrowed NIS 500,000 from a criminal organization to pay off a debt. He allegedly bought a Lamborghini with that money and defaulted on the loan, causing a rift with the gang.
When members of the crime group came to collect the money, the money launderer’s associates stabbed one of them in the face, which left him seriously injured, according to Channel 12.
The criminal group is said to have collaborated in several separate cells in this week’s assassination attempt, allegedly in an effort to mislead the police. One team tracked the target along Route 6 from northern Israel to the center of the country, while coordinating with a second team that set up a temporary police checkpoint in the middle of the highway.
During the events, many drivers thought it was a real police roadblock. When the target’s car stopped there, several cells on motorcycles approached the car, opened its door and beat and stabbed the two passengers, then fled.
The scene of a suspected assassination attempt on Route 6 near the Ben Shemen interchange on December 6, 2022. (Israel Police)
Later, while paramedics were tending to the wounded, a third cell arrived and opened fire, narrowly missing the paramedics, one of whom said a bullet went through his legs.
A suspect who was arrested on Tuesday night has been named as Karem Abu Ghanem, 23, from Ramle. He was detained for eight days on suspicion of attempted murder and other offences.
On Wednesday, the Ynet news site said a second suspect, a resident of Ramle in his 30s, had been arrested. He was allegedly spotted by a police drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera hiding in trees in an orchard near the town of Mazkeret Batya.
