Columnist Jeff German: Israeli mob influence spreads

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 | 11:18 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

Mention organized crime and Las Vegas in the same column, and there's likely to be plenty of interest from local readers.

But when the subject is Israeli organized crime, you get international attention.

Journalists from several of the largest news organizations in Israel lit up the phone lines Monday looking to follow up on an April 30 column in this space about the rise of the Israeli mob in Las Vegas.

The column has been making the rounds over the Internet, especially in Israel, where terrorism apparently isn't the only hot subject.

Reporters there have been chronicling a bloody war between two crime families, one based in Jerusalem and the other in Tel Aviv.

The Jerusalem family, known as the "Jerusalem Network," is allegedly run by Itzak Abergil, who was ordered to leave Israel amid the stepped-up bloodshed. The Tel Aviv family is said to be run by Zeev Rosenstein, a notorious crime figure who has survived five assassination attempts over the last three years. All the members of the two groups are Jewish.

As reported here April 30, several suspected members of the Jerusalem Network were charged with extortion and money laundering in a federal indictment in Los Angeles.

The case, put together primarily by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, originated in Las Vegas, which has been described as "open territory" for the Israeli crime syndicates.

The most prominent name in the indictment was Gabriel Ben Harosh, the reputed jet-setting No. 2 man in the Jerusalem Network. Ben Harosh, who is in custody in Toronto awaiting extradition to Los Angeles, is being represented by Las Vegas lawyer David Chesnoff.

One of the defendants was living in Las Vegas in January 2003, when local DEA agents first picked up on the Jerusalem family's international trail of crime. Another defendant was regarded as a high-roller at several Strip megaresorts.

Israeli journalists say the war between the two Israeli mob families has created concern among law enforcement authorities there because it has resulted in the deaths of innocent bystanders.

Three people, for example, were killed in a bomb blast last December outside a Tel Aviv business owned by Rosenstein in an attempted hit on the crime boss.

Violence also has spread to other countries, such as the Czech Republic, where one of Rosenstein's top lieutenants was gunned down outside a casino tied to the Tel Aviv crime family.

The two syndicates, which earn large sums of cash trafficking in cocaine and Ecstasy, have been fighting over control of illegal gambling in Israel and other countries.

Sworn DEA affidavits allege that the Jerusalem Network maintains the biggest presence in Las Vegas, which has a growing population of Israeli emigrants.

Drug dealing, extortion and money laundering are believed to be among the organization's most popular activities here.

No violence has been reported in Las Vegas.

But agents say some local Israeli-born business people are being shaken down in protection rackets, which can only mean we'll be hearing a lot more about the Israeli mob in the coming months.