The month-long investigation and the arrests were led by Commander Menachem
Hever, head of the Central Unit at the Northern District.
According to testimony by the women who were forced to work as call girls, the
ring has been operating for over three years. Superintendent James Glick and
Chief Inspector Eli Ben Yishai, the two police officers in charge of the arrest
said that the ring was headed by two men, residents of Haifa, who were
"importing" women from former Soviet Union countries, and used to smuggle them
into Israel through the Egyptian border. The women's arduous trip was usually
accompanied by brutal rapes.
When the women were brought to Haifa they were housed in the Hadar neighborhood
and were forced into prostitution. The investigation also revealed that the two
suspects' wives and even a daughter of one the men were working as
"dispatchers." According to the suspicions, front desk employees of cheap
hotels and also drivers who drove the women around are also suspected of
belonging to the ring.
During the arrest operation police used undercover officers who went into one
of the hotels and asked the front desk employee for a call girl. Once the woman
was brought in the detectives arrested the drivers, the prostitute and the
other ring members outside the hotel, including the hotel's front desk
employee.
At the same time other police crews arrived at the homes of the other ring
members with arrest, as well as search warrants. The State's prosecutor is
asking to impound the cell phone, laptop computers, and luxury cars that were
seized.
Police will ask on Monday to extend the suspects' remand.
YnetNews
