JERUSALEM - Police raided a Jerusalem apartment Thursday morning and arrested six members of a drug smuggling ring, which was in possession of 90,000 tablets of ecstasy.
Police were tipped off about the ring four months ago and, since then, kept it under surveillance.
On Wednesday night, police followed Moshe Zarihan, 45, from Ben-Gurion International Airport to his ex-wife’s apartment in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev.
Zarihan had allegedly just returned from a drug run to France and went to pick up more ecstasy tablets.
Largest bust in Jerusalem's history
Police continued to follow him as he made contact with the two heads of the ring, Yaron Elimelech, 32, from Rishon Lezion, and Amos Atiya, 48, from Beit Hashomayim.
When Zarihan met up with another two conspirators, the police pounced, arresting all five and seizing 15,000 pills. A search was then conducted of the ex-wife’s apartment and authorities found an additional 70,000 pills in a child’s closet.
Another 5,000 pills were later found in a search of a toys warehouse.
This is the largest drug find in Jerusalem’s history.
The tablets smuggled into Israel from European countries were wrapped in a special silver foil to prevent them being detected by X-ray. Police believe that ring leaders made hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of shekels on the illegal business.
The going rate for each pill was NIS 80 (about USD 15.)
