The Foreign Ministry repeated a warning on Thursday to Israelis to refrain from taking the drug gat to European countries.
The Ministry noted that over the past few days, another 14 Israelis have been arrested on charges of attempting to smuggle as much as 91 kilograms into France, Sweden, Spain and Ireland. A ministry statement said, "Unfortunately, this phenomenon continues to expand and hit innocent civilians, some of whom are from the weak and disadvantaged sectors of the population, who are tempted by the Israeli operator to distribute gat and find themselves in prisons for long periods of imprisonment." The statement cited the case of an Israeli who is serving a 10-year sentence in Turkey.