Operation Safe Track is the police’s national enforcement operation against the main perpetrators of crime in the country, primarily in the Arab society.
By Aryeh Savir, TPS
Israeli police detectives, Tax Authority officials, and other law enforcement agencies operated in the Bedouin city of Rahat in southern Israel on Tuesday, as part of Operation Safe Track to deal with criminal gangs and tax offenders suspected of offsetting fictitious invoices amounting to tens of millions of shekels.
As part of the activity, the police seized checks worth NIS 7 million, NIS 600,000 in cash, gold weighing about 2 kg, checks from the Palestinian Authority worth NIS 1 million, and six vehicles, some of them luxury cars.
In one of the businesses inspected, an employer, his brother and an illegal resident were arrested. The three suspects were taken for questioning by the Tax Authority and the Border Police.
The police stated after the operation that “integrated enforcement activity is an effective tool in combating criminal phenomena alongside the criminal procedure. The integration between the various enforcement bodies constitutes another tier in the fight against crime in Arab society, along with damage to the economic infrastructure of those involved in violating the law.”
In the north, the Tax Authority and the Israel Police held a joint operation in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm, during which 16 vehicles and one motorcycle were seized and confiscated.
The activity focused on 13 tax evaders, some of whom were also criminal targets sought by the police, who accumulated tax debts totaling about NIS 6.8 million.
The investigation against the debtors is still in progress, and one suspect was arrested and brought before a judge who released him under restrictive conditions.
“The Israel Police and the Tax Authority will continue to operate with all the tools at their disposal and in cooperation in order to enforce all laws at all times, in order to preserve governance, deterrence and increase economic enforcement,” they stated.
Operation Safe Track is the police’s national enforcement operation against the main perpetrators of crime in the country, primarily in the Arab society.
Speaking at the Knesset’s Public Security Committee in September, Minister of Public Security Omer Barlev described the lawlessness in the Arab sector as “a genuine threat to the internal security of the State of Israel.”