Abergil Crime Family
Encyclopedia
The Abergil crime family is a crime organization
based in Israel
, and located around the world. The group was headed by Ya'akov Abergil until his death in 2002, and is now run under the auspices of Itzhak (Itzik) Abergil , and his brothers Meir Abergil and Avraham (Ibi) Abergil . Its illicit activities include drug trafficking, both in Israel and the US, murder
, extortion
, embezzlement
, money laundering
, the control of illegal casino
s and other crimes. Considered one of the six major organized-crime cells in Israel, and one of the world’s top 40 biggest drug importers to the United States, the Abergils have been arrest
ed and detained multiple times worldwide. Ibi Abergil is currently incarcerated on a slew of drug and attempted murder
charges.
On January 12, 2011 Yitzhak and Meir Abergil and three associates were extradited to the US. In a 77-page 32-count indictment
filed on July 13, 2008 at federal court in Los Angeles, the Abergil family is considered one of the most powerful crime families in Israel, deriving that power, in part, “because of its propensity for violence in Israel and around the world.” The defendants face charges of murder, laundering millions of dollars obtained from embezzlement at Israel Trade Bank, extortion of business people, and operating an ecstasy-distribution network for millions of ecstasy pills
. As of yet, the Abergils and their three associates have denied all charges.
claim that when the Abergils wished to expand their mob syndicate in the US, they turned for help to an upstart Latino
street gang known as the Vineland Boyz. The Boyz' feud with the Mexican Mafia
, known as "La Eme", sent the Boyz looking for a new source of drugs, which the Israelis provided. The Abergils, along with Moshe Malul and Israel Ozifa, are also charged with smuggling
cocaine
and hashish
from Europe to the United States.
On July 22, 2002, the Los Angeles Police
busted a meeting of ecstasy dealers in the midst of a drug and money exchange, confiscating over 400,000 tablets of the drug, valued at more than $5 million. According to the LAPD, Moshe Malul was the person behind the distribution of millions of ecstasy tablets in Southern California and Itzhak Abergil the person responsible for the ecstasy shipments from Belgium and Holland.
In May 2008, a court in Antwerp, Belgium
sentenced Itzik Abergil along with eight other accomplices to a firm 5-year prison term for his involvement in large scale drug trafficking through the city of Antwerp′s port.
s and assassination
s, including the unplanned killing of 31 year-old social worker Margarita Lautin , from Yehud
, who was killed while dining on the Bat Yam boardwalk with her husband and two young children. The targets of the shooting, attempting to run away from the shooters, had created a clear line of fire on Lautin, who was shot in the chest. The two suspected assassins, Ronen Ben-Adi and Shimon Sabah, members of the Abergil mob, fled the scene on a motorcycle, but were later apprehended by the police. The assailants were apparently targeting Rami Amira, who was sitting at a table nearby with Moti Hassin and Simantov Hatayeb, who are all identified with the Abergil group, in an effort to resolve an internal dispute. Amira sustained a slight injuries in his cheek as a result of the attack.
In 2005, two girls were killed in Ramle by shots fired at a hall where Itzhik Abergil was celebrating. Police believe the slain girls were innocent victims of a mistake by the attacker in identifying his true target.
On August 31, 2003, Sami Atias, an Israeli drug dealer who had belonged to an ecstasy ring headed by Abergil and Moshe Malul, was shot at close range and killed in the parking lot of an Encino café as he was getting into his car. Allegedly he had tried to steal 76 kilograms of Ecstasy in 2002. According to the indictment, Moshe Malul and fugitive Vineland Boyz′ member Luis Sandoval, were at the scene when Atias was shot, but another man had pulled the trigger. Itzhak Abergil had offered to help with the slaying during a meeting in Spain, but he did not play a direct role in the killing.
On October 5, 2008, Amir Sanker and Eitan Gerella, two suspected associates of the Abergil crime family, were acquitted
of a charge of grievous bodily harm by a Tel Aviv District Court, instead being convicted of lesser crimes, due to police negligence in collecting evidence. The charge sheet had claimed that the suspects had planned to kill Nissim Alperon, brother of crime boss Yaakov Alperon
in retaliation for an attack on Itzik Abergil said to be carried out by the Alperons five months earlier. On November 2008, Yaakov Alperon was killed in a car blast in Tel Aviv
.
, believed to be from the Commonwealth of Independent States
, had come to Israel at the behest of a rival crime family embroiled in a vendetta with the Abergil crime syndicate. The police believed the two hit men to be hired by the competing Alperon crime family.
Hai Vaknin, called an “Abergil henchman” by the Israeli daily Haaretz, was arrested in the USA in 2006. In January 2011, he signed a plea bargain, confessing to money laundering and receiving a 57-month jail sentence, which he had already served. He will be kept under supervision for three years after his release. His description of loans and extortion practices is expected to help convict Itzik and Meir Abergil.
In early August 2008, Yitzhak and Meir Abergil were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Margarita Lautin who had died after being mistakenly shot during a failed assassination attempt by members of the Abergil mob.
On August 26, 2008 Yitzhak and Meir Abergil along with Moshe Malul and Israel Ozifa were brought before a Jerusalem Magistrate′s Court judge for their alleged role in the killing of Israeli drug dealer Sami Atias in Encino in August 2003, as a revenge for his allegedly having stolen money from them. They were remanded in custody together with Sason Barashi as a result of a request by law enforcement in the United States for their extradition. The indictment includes four different crimes that are attributed to Yitzhak Abergil: involvement together with Malul in the murder of Atias in California in 2003, trade in Ecstasy, extortion and violence against businessmen, and money laundering and fraud. The inquiry into the case had lasted for six years, involving the FBI, tax authorities and law enforcement officials in more than ten countries in America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
In July 2009, a Jerusalem District Court approved the state’s request to extradite the Abergils, Sasson Barashy, Moshe Malul and Israel Ozifa to the US. In December 2010, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the three associates of the Abergil brothers.
On January 12, 2011 Yitzik and Meir Abergil, together with Sasson Barashy, Moshe Malul and Israel Ozifa, were extradited to the US, arriving in Los Angeles on January 13, aboard an American government airplane. They are being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, facing a 77-page, 32-count federal indictment
that alleges murder, massive embezzlement, money laundering, racketeering and running a large Los Angeles-based Ecstasy ring. The trial is set for November 8, 2011 in the Los Angeles Federal District Court. If convicted, they may face life imprisonment
, but not the death penalty, as US authorities have promised their Israeli counterparts that even if found guilty of murder, the five suspects would not be given the death penalty. Under the terms of the extradition agreement, they would likely serve their sentence in an Israeli prison.
Despite evidence, Itzik Abergil called the allegations “police provocation” during an earlier custody hearing, further stating that he had never been to the United States. In an interview on Israeli Television, Meir Abergil dismissed claims that he and his brother were important criminals, saying: “Who are we? We're peanuts compared to the mafias they have in America [...] Who are we? Nothing, cockroaches.”
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
based in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and located around the world. The group was headed by Ya'akov Abergil until his death in 2002, and is now run under the auspices of Itzhak (Itzik) Abergil , and his brothers Meir Abergil and Avraham (Ibi) Abergil . Its illicit activities include drug trafficking, both in Israel and the US, murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
, embezzlement
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
, money laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
, the control of illegal casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
s and other crimes. Considered one of the six major organized-crime cells in Israel, and one of the world’s top 40 biggest drug importers to the United States, the Abergils have been arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
ed and detained multiple times worldwide. Ibi Abergil is currently incarcerated on a slew of drug and attempted murder
Attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.-Today:In English criminal law, attempted murder is the crime of more than merely preparing to commit unlawful killing and at the same time having a specific intention to cause the death of human being under the Queen's Peace...
charges.
On January 12, 2011 Yitzhak and Meir Abergil and three associates were extradited to the US. In a 77-page 32-count indictment
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
filed on July 13, 2008 at federal court in Los Angeles, the Abergil family is considered one of the most powerful crime families in Israel, deriving that power, in part, “because of its propensity for violence in Israel and around the world.” The defendants face charges of murder, laundering millions of dollars obtained from embezzlement at Israel Trade Bank, extortion of business people, and operating an ecstasy-distribution network for millions of ecstasy pills
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine
MDMA is an entactogenic drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of drugs. In popular culture, MDMA has become widely known as "ecstasy" , usually referring to its street pill form, although this term may also include the presence of possible adulterants...
. As of yet, the Abergils and their three associates have denied all charges.
Assets
According to the Israeli Police, the Abergil crime family, at its height in June 2004, had tens of millions of shekels in assets in Israel. The organization ran 37 companies, owned 48 apartments and 56 cars.Money-laundering
According to the indictment, the crime organization headed by Itzhak and Meir Abergil ran a flourishing money-laundering business in the US from 2002 to 2006, processing tens of millions of dollars of funds embezzled from the Israel Trade Bank, through the “Jerusalem Gang′s” extortion of Ofer Maximov, that led to his sister Etti Alon′s embezzling 250 million shekel. The money was given out as loans to Israeli businesspeople in the United States, who were later extorted to give up their businesses if they did not pay up. Meir Abergil, described as the person in charge of finances, collected the money that was exacted and later laundered and invested it. Gabi Ben Harosh of the “Jerusalem Gang” who was arrested in Los Angeles in 2004, ran the lending bank in the United States and updated Meir and Itzhak Abergil on its balance. Sasson Barashi of Jerusalem and Hai Vaknin of Los Angeles identified borrowers and businesses and also saw to the collection of the money. Yoram Elal, who has fled to Brazil, was responsible for special-operations. The activities have been documented in hundreds of surveillance reports, photographs and phone calls, which were recorded by police departments all over the world and are detailed in the indictment.Drug trafficking
The US State Department considers the Abergils as one of the world’s top 40 drug importers to the US. US federal prosecutorsUnited States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
claim that when the Abergils wished to expand their mob syndicate in the US, they turned for help to an upstart Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
street gang known as the Vineland Boyz. The Boyz' feud with the Mexican Mafia
Mexican Mafia
The Mexican Mafia , also known as La Eme , 13 is a Mexican American criminal organization, and is one of the oldest and most powerful prison gangs in the United States.-Foundation:...
, known as "La Eme", sent the Boyz looking for a new source of drugs, which the Israelis provided. The Abergils, along with Moshe Malul and Israel Ozifa, are also charged with smuggling
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
and hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
from Europe to the United States.
On July 22, 2002, the Los Angeles Police
Los Angeles Police
Law enforcement in Los Angeles County is conducted by a variety of law enforcement agencies.-County agencies:*Los Angeles County Coroner's Office*Los Angeles County Probation Department*Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department...
busted a meeting of ecstasy dealers in the midst of a drug and money exchange, confiscating over 400,000 tablets of the drug, valued at more than $5 million. According to the LAPD, Moshe Malul was the person behind the distribution of millions of ecstasy tablets in Southern California and Itzhak Abergil the person responsible for the ecstasy shipments from Belgium and Holland.
In May 2008, a court in Antwerp, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
sentenced Itzik Abergil along with eight other accomplices to a firm 5-year prison term for his involvement in large scale drug trafficking through the city of Antwerp′s port.
Murders and assassinations
The Abergils have been accused of number of murderMurder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
s and assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
s, including the unplanned killing of 31 year-old social worker Margarita Lautin , from Yehud
Yehud
Yehud is a city in the Center District in Israel that is part of the joint municipality of Yehud-Monosson. In 2007, Yehud's population was approximately 25,600 .- History :...
, who was killed while dining on the Bat Yam boardwalk with her husband and two young children. The targets of the shooting, attempting to run away from the shooters, had created a clear line of fire on Lautin, who was shot in the chest. The two suspected assassins, Ronen Ben-Adi and Shimon Sabah, members of the Abergil mob, fled the scene on a motorcycle, but were later apprehended by the police. The assailants were apparently targeting Rami Amira, who was sitting at a table nearby with Moti Hassin and Simantov Hatayeb, who are all identified with the Abergil group, in an effort to resolve an internal dispute. Amira sustained a slight injuries in his cheek as a result of the attack.
In 2005, two girls were killed in Ramle by shots fired at a hall where Itzhik Abergil was celebrating. Police believe the slain girls were innocent victims of a mistake by the attacker in identifying his true target.
On August 31, 2003, Sami Atias, an Israeli drug dealer who had belonged to an ecstasy ring headed by Abergil and Moshe Malul, was shot at close range and killed in the parking lot of an Encino café as he was getting into his car. Allegedly he had tried to steal 76 kilograms of Ecstasy in 2002. According to the indictment, Moshe Malul and fugitive Vineland Boyz′ member Luis Sandoval, were at the scene when Atias was shot, but another man had pulled the trigger. Itzhak Abergil had offered to help with the slaying during a meeting in Spain, but he did not play a direct role in the killing.
On October 5, 2008, Amir Sanker and Eitan Gerella, two suspected associates of the Abergil crime family, were acquitted
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
of a charge of grievous bodily harm by a Tel Aviv District Court, instead being convicted of lesser crimes, due to police negligence in collecting evidence. The charge sheet had claimed that the suspects had planned to kill Nissim Alperon, brother of crime boss Yaakov Alperon
Yaakov Alperon
Yaakov Alperon , was an Israeli mobster who was murdered in a car bomb attack. He was reputed to have run Tel Aviv's third-largest crime family, the Alperon crime family.-Biography:...
in retaliation for an attack on Itzik Abergil said to be carried out by the Alperons five months earlier. On November 2008, Yaakov Alperon was killed in a car blast in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
.
Personal safety
In June 2002 Yaakov Abergil, the eldest of the brothers was murdered in front of his family. After his death, the leadership passed on to his brother Itzik, who has accumulated a number of powerful enemies and survived several assassination attempts. In December 2002, one of Abergil's main rivals, underworld kingpin Ze'ev Rosenstein, was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to assassinate both Abergils. In 2007, Police learned that at least two contract killersContract killing
Contract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...
, believed to be from the Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
, had come to Israel at the behest of a rival crime family embroiled in a vendetta with the Abergil crime syndicate. The police believed the two hit men to be hired by the competing Alperon crime family.
Arrests and Extradition
In 2004, Gabi Ben Harosh, partner of the Abergil brothers, was arrested in Los Angeles. After two years of house arrest, he signed a plea bargain for minor offenses, connected to bringing in foreign currency without a permit, and was sentenced to community service and judicial supervision for three years. In view of the Abergil brothers extradition to the US, he and his wife were arrested for violating immigration laws. It is believed that American authorities want to apply pressure to Ben Harosh to incriminate the Abergil brothers.Hai Vaknin, called an “Abergil henchman” by the Israeli daily Haaretz, was arrested in the USA in 2006. In January 2011, he signed a plea bargain, confessing to money laundering and receiving a 57-month jail sentence, which he had already served. He will be kept under supervision for three years after his release. His description of loans and extortion practices is expected to help convict Itzik and Meir Abergil.
In early August 2008, Yitzhak and Meir Abergil were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Margarita Lautin who had died after being mistakenly shot during a failed assassination attempt by members of the Abergil mob.
On August 26, 2008 Yitzhak and Meir Abergil along with Moshe Malul and Israel Ozifa were brought before a Jerusalem Magistrate′s Court judge for their alleged role in the killing of Israeli drug dealer Sami Atias in Encino in August 2003, as a revenge for his allegedly having stolen money from them. They were remanded in custody together with Sason Barashi as a result of a request by law enforcement in the United States for their extradition. The indictment includes four different crimes that are attributed to Yitzhak Abergil: involvement together with Malul in the murder of Atias in California in 2003, trade in Ecstasy, extortion and violence against businessmen, and money laundering and fraud. The inquiry into the case had lasted for six years, involving the FBI, tax authorities and law enforcement officials in more than ten countries in America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
In July 2009, a Jerusalem District Court approved the state’s request to extradite the Abergils, Sasson Barashy, Moshe Malul and Israel Ozifa to the US. In December 2010, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the three associates of the Abergil brothers.
On January 12, 2011 Yitzik and Meir Abergil, together with Sasson Barashy, Moshe Malul and Israel Ozifa, were extradited to the US, arriving in Los Angeles on January 13, aboard an American government airplane. They are being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, facing a 77-page, 32-count federal indictment
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
that alleges murder, massive embezzlement, money laundering, racketeering and running a large Los Angeles-based Ecstasy ring. The trial is set for November 8, 2011 in the Los Angeles Federal District Court. If convicted, they may face life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
, but not the death penalty, as US authorities have promised their Israeli counterparts that even if found guilty of murder, the five suspects would not be given the death penalty. Under the terms of the extradition agreement, they would likely serve their sentence in an Israeli prison.
Despite evidence, Itzik Abergil called the allegations “police provocation” during an earlier custody hearing, further stating that he had never been to the United States. In an interview on Israeli Television, Meir Abergil dismissed claims that he and his brother were important criminals, saying: “Who are we? We're peanuts compared to the mafias they have in America [...] Who are we? Nothing, cockroaches.”