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Police on Monday arrested a senior officer, El Al, suspected of being involved in a large-scale drug trafficking operation.
The head of the airline, Rami Yogev, 53, is the head of the development and resource department at El Al and has been with the company for 25 years.
As part of his duties, Yogev is the liaison between El Al and Shin Bet, which determines the security measures applicable to EL AL flights and their representatives abroad.
The suspect at court (Photo: Avi Mualem)
As such, Yogev gets a maximum security clearance – one of Israel's highest – and is allowed to enter restricted areas housing planes and to load and unload special supplies, including weapons.
According to the International Criminal Investigation Unit of the Israeli Police, as a member of a drug trafficking network, the suspect allegedly used his security clearance and his free access to the planes. company to smuggle large amounts of cocaine into Israel.
Three other men suspected of involvement in the drug trafficking network were arrested. One of the suspects was Beno Shalom, former head of the Shin Bet, who served for 12 years as an agent in the Jewish division of Shin Bet and was even involved in a secret operation in which he was involved. Is infiltrated into a group of the far right.
El Al plane (Photo: Danny Sadeh)
Testimony gathered by the police suggests that the network had set up a drug trafficking "road" between Johannesburg, South Africa, and had successfully smuggled nearly 15 kg of cocaine.
Yogev was suspected of helping the network to carry out security checks at the airports.
The Rishon LeZion trial court has extended the pre-trial detention of Yogev, Shalom and another suspect, Roy Chen, until Tuesday next week.
"We believe that the suspect (Yogev) has played a bigger role in the operation than the other suspects so far," said a police representative at the hearing.
Yogev's lawyer said his client "denies these allegations, and because of the confidential nature of his work, I can not say more, and we are confident that the police will release him soon." The other suspects also denied their involvement.
El Al said that he "considers these allegations with seriousness and awaits the outcome of the police investigation".
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