Tel Aviv, Thursday, April 22, 2004
Former Israeli
minister Gonen Segev arrested for drug smuggling
By Roni Singer, Haaretz Correspondent
Former
Minister Gonen Segev at his attorney's
offices on Tuesday. (Motti Kimche)
FORMER energy minister Gonen Segev was
remanded in custody at the Tel Aviv Magistrate's
Court on Thursday for seven days on suspicion he
attempted to smuggle 25,000 Ecstasy pills into the
country from the Netherlands. Segev, a pediatrician
by profession, served as a minister for the
right-wing Tsomet party in Yitzhak Rabin's
government in the mid-1990s. A sweeping gag order
placed on the case two weeks ago was partially
lifted on Thursday morning.
The former minister is also suspected of using a
forged diplomatic
passport. Israel Radio reported that Segev's
diplomatic passport had expired, but the date had
allegedly been altered. Two other men, identified
as Ariel Friedman and Moshe Verner,
have also been arrested as suspects in the case and
were also remanded in custody on Thursday.
Judge David Rosen wrote in Thursday's
ruling:
"This does not seem to be an isolated
incident. Investigators believe that the
suspects are part of, though not necessary the
central figures in, a drug-smuggling
ring. . . The suspect Segev apparently
tried to smuggle the drugs caught by using a
forged diplomatic passport. I have looked into
the allegations and found that there are grounds
to them. It is almost possible to say that these
are not [merely] allegations, but
apparently real evidence."
Segev, who was placed under arrest on Wednesday
night, denies all allegations against him. The Tel
Aviv Central Police District received information
some two weeks ago of a shipment of Ecstasy pills
meant to arrive in Israel from the Netherlands.
Police also learned that Segev was allegedly meant
to pick up the drugs in the Netherlands and bring
them to Israel.
Segev, however, claims that he was in the
Netherlands for business, where he met a friend, an
Israeli lawyer, who gave him a package his cousin
had asked him to bring into Israel.
Segev says he was told the
five-kilogram package contained M&M
chocolates. The former minister claims
further that he stored the package in a locker at
Schiphol Airport before he boarded the Tel Aviv-
bound flight because he feared the package did not
really contain chocolates.
He reported the matter to Dutch police and to
Israeli police when he landed at Ben-Gurion
International Airport. Police called him in for
questioning on Wednesday night, when he was
arrested. Israeli media and Segev's attorney
Lior Epstein have tried for the last week to
have the gag order lifted. Epstein claims that his
client is innocent and has no link to the crime and
thus wants to see the truth come to
light.
Thursday, April 22, 2004
KRIMINALITÄT
Ex-Minister
schmuggelt Ecstasy-Pillen mit
Schokohülle
DER
ehemalige Energie-Minister Israels ist beim
Versuch, Drogen zu schmuggeln, erwischt worden.
Die niederländische Polizei stellte den
Mann am internationalen Flughafen von
Amsterdam.
Tel Aviv - Gonen Segev
habe versucht, etwa 25.000 mit Schokohülle
überzogene Ecstasy-Pillen nach Israel zu
bringen, berichtete der israelische Rundfunk heute.
Als ihn die niederländische Flughafenpolizei
in Schiphol durchsuchen wollte, habe er einen
abgelaufenen Diplomatenpass mit gefälschtem
Datum gezeigt. Nach einer Verwarnung habe er den
Koffer mit den Drogen in einem
Gepäckaufbewahrungsschrank eingeschlossen und
sei nach Israel geflogen.
Die niederländische Polizei brach den
Schrank später auf und fand die Pillen. Bei
seiner Ankunft in Israel wurde der Ex-Minister
festgenommen. Segevs Rechtsanwälte teilten
mit, er habe die Packung von einem Freund erhalten
und den Inhalt für Süßigkeiten
gehalten.
-
Our
dossier on The Mossad, Israel's Intelligence
service
-
Israel's links to the
global ecstasy trade ...
-
-
International
Ecstasy smuggling racket: three Israelis
arrested
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Israelis
at center of the international Ecstasy drug
trade
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Ecstasy:
A gift from "our best friend and
ally"...
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Ultra-Orthodox
couriers ran drugs for major international ring,
reports Reuters
-
international
money-laundering ring run by New York Hasidim
washed millions of dollars in cocaine proceeds
for the Colombian cartels
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Real
History, Drug rings, and Israel: Reports from
DEA field offices state young Israelis claiming
to be art students and had been attempting to
penetrate DEA offices
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Police
raid Michel Friedmanns house for cocaine.
Drogenrazzia beim Vizepräsidenten des
Zentralrates der Juden in Deutschland, Michel
Friedman.
-
use
of forged passports ...
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-
Ottawa
investigating: Mossad has history of using
counterfeit Canadian documents
-
2002: Fury
at Mossad's continued use of Canadian Passports
in Murder Operation
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Sept
6, 1999: Probe of Mossad's use of Canadian ID
halted
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1998: Israeli
secret service still using Canadian
passports
-
Ottawa
investigating: Mossad has history of using
counterfeit Canadian documents
-
Two
men believed by senior Government figures to be
Israeli secret service agents have been arrested
in Auckland trying to obtain a false New Zealand
passport
Links
to Video clips on the passports story
...
-
NZ
Passport System Under Threat 17/04/2004 08:10 PM
The NZ passport system is under threat after two
Israeli's were arrested for trying to obtain a
false NZ passport.
-
NZ
Passport System Under Threat The NZ passport
system is under threat after two Israeli's were
arrested for trying to obtain a false NZ
passport.
-
NZ
News
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