The senior crime figure arrested on Tuesday in connection with a series of underworld assassinations is Motti Hassin.
Hassin, the acting leader of the Yitzhak Abergil crime organization while the latter sits in prison, is suspected of conspiring to murder Yitzhak Geffen and Jordan Azoulay. He was ordered detained for 15 days by the Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court.
Eight other people were also arrested on Tuesday as part of a broad police investigation into a series of assassinations which left 14 people dead.
The killings are believed to be the result of a turf battle between Abergil’s crime organization and that of Yossi Musli over control of grey market lending in the center of the country.
Some of the murders were also sparked by the defection of members of Abergil’s group to the rival group.
The murders of Sharon Mizrahi, Mor Algrabli, Rami Amira and Bar Cohen are also being investigated.
Some arrested Tuesday are also suspected of abetting the murder of Avi David in Bat Yam in 2011, a case for which other suspects are currently on trial.
The suspects are also being questioned in connection with several attempted murders in 2012, and other crimes.
The latter include throwing a grenade into a house in Rishon Letzion, stealing a gun from a soldier in Bat Yam, torching kiosks in Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market and extorting money from their owners and stashing a cache of illegal weapons that police discovered in a kindergarten in Tel Aviv in 2012.
