Officers from the Lahav 433’s Nationwide Unit for Combating Financial Crime arrested a number of members of the Bakri crime group, Israel police and the Tax Authority introduced in a joint assertion on Monday.
The seven suspects, together with senior members of the prison group, had been arrested and detained following an undercover investigation into suspected offenses of extortion by way of threats, cash laundering, and quite a lot of tax offenses.
The investigation was directed by the Tax Authority and the Cash Laundering Prohibition Authority, and the suspects had been delivered to Lahav 433 for interrogation following the arrests.
Monday’s arrest operation was carried out in cooperation with the Haifa Customs and VAT Investigation Unit on the Tax Authority, the Cash Laundering Prohibition Authority, and the Northern District Legal professional’s Workplace.
In keeping with the assertion, the suspects had been extorting victims by way of blackmail, committing tax evasion, and distributing fictitious invoices for 2 years, illegally acquiring thousands and thousands of shekels.
Following the preliminary investigation, the suspects shall be delivered to the Nazareth Justice of the Peace’s Courtroom for a listening to relating to the extension of their detention, the assertion declared.
In early December 2025, police arrested further Bakri members, in addition to businesspeople and a few municipal officers in Nazareth on related suspicion of involvement with extortion, cash laundering, and municipal monetary manipulation schemes, based on police statements launched on the time.
Northern District Commander Commissioner Meir Eliyahu described the Bakri crime group as one “that engaged in extortion of companies, in homicide incidents, and inserted its fingers right into a municipal authority with the intention of toppling the authority and squeezing it to its final drop of blood.”
Fraidy Moser and Maariv contributed to this report.
