"In a joint effort between the security forces, infrastructure of hostile terrorist activity and smuggling over the Lebanese border has been halted."
During the past year, the Shi'ite axis led by the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies across the Middle East has been actively promoting attacks and weapons smuggling into Israel.
A special team consisting of IDF, Israel Police, and other Israeli security forces was established to handle the issue of smuggling attempts.
The team has been involved in cases in which a connection between the drug smuggling axis and the weapons smuggling axis has been exposed, resulting in the prevention of the smuggling of dozens of weapons and dozens of kilos of drugs.
As part of the task force's activities, two operatives suspected of smuggling and being part of terrorist infrastructure were apprehended. The operatives acted with the personal guidance of Haj Khalil Harb, who in recent months has been revealed as being involved in smuggling drugs and weapons into Israel from Lebanon.
Recently, a number of meetings took place between Lebanese drugs and weapons dealers and Israeli and Palestinian smugglers in an attempt to advance hostile terrorist activity in Israel. In one of the meetings, it was made clear that Hezbollah and the Iranian regime were leading the planned smuggling attempt.
The investigation revealed that the two suspects had met with Hussein Sheet and Akram Sheet, both Lebanese drug smugglers from the village of Kfarkela, last November in Turkey. At the meeting, the two suspects were asked to smuggle weapons into Israel and conceal them for other terror suspects to subsequently use. In addition, the two were asked to assess their ability to perpetrate terrorist attacks in Israel independently.
The IDF and Israel's security forces will continue to operate to maintain security in the region and act against any attempt to violate the sovereignty of the State of Israel.