Police arrested on Thursday two suspects in the 2013 murder of a suspected mobster, the latest development in a major organized crime investigation known as Case 512.
Both suspects had been arrested for Shlomi Levy’s murder in the past, but were released due to insufficient evidence.
They were rearrested thanks to the Case 512 probe, which produced new evidence against them.
Levy, 37, was murdered in Ashdod in October 2013 while sitting in his car outside his house.
Eyewitnesses said two people on a motorcycle rode straight up to the car and shot him. He died of his injuries in the hospital shortly afterward.
Levy was thought to be a member of Yitzhak Abergil’s crime ring and was considered a major player in the metal trade.
Police brought the two suspects to the Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court for a remand hearing Thursday, and the court ordered them into custody for six days.
Police believe the new evidence they acquired from the Case 512 probe will be enough, combined with what they already had, to charge the two.
In May, police arrested several senior members of the Abergil mob who are suspected of various crimes, including murder, attempted murder and drug trafficking, as part of Case 512.
In July, 20 people were indicted for serious crimes as a result of this case, including Yitzhak Abergil and Avi Rohan, who are charged with murdering three innocent bystanders.
Case 512 is expected to change the face of organized crime in Israel. It has dealt a severe blow to two major criminal organizations, those led by Abergil and Rico Shirazi, and is liable to completely wipe out a third, the Abutbul gang.
On Wednesday, a court convicted Ilan Ben-Sheetrit of heading an organized crime ring in Eilat that served as the Abergil gang’s southern affiliate.
That development, however, was unrelated to Case 512.
