This story starts with a cop. Not a street one but an investigator who once probed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. This individual allegedly sold police intelligence to the Israeli Musli crime family for cash. Not rumors. Operational tips. Raid timing. Target lists.

Demonstrably, this was not gossip—it was proof of access. And access is what separates criminals from power brokers.

At present, the State of Israel does not have “organized crime” in the abstract; as a matter of fact, there are between 18 and 22 identifiable mafia families, depending on how police classify splinter groups. About half are Jewish, half Arab, and several operate jointly when profit overrides blood. These are not gangs; they are dynasties.

Among them, the Jewish families that defined the modern era include the Abergils, the Abutbuls, the Alperons, the Rosensteins, and the later Russian-speaking syndicates emerging in the 1990s.

Doubtlessly, their rise tracks perfectly with Israel’s social geography—development towns, ports, border cities, and ungoverned economic niches. Crime followed opportunity. Structure followed crime.

Over time, key moments........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)