New developments in the "Money Maze" scandal: After a wave of arrests in the Nazareth area, including of top businessmen and current and former senior municipality officials on suspicion of money laundering, transfering funds to the Bakri crime organization, and commandeering the city's financials systems, an a police commander and two police officers were detained for questioning by the Police Internal Investigations Department.
Among the detainees is the deputy commander of a precinct in the Northern District. The officers allegedly had inappropriate ties with criminal elements. The Internal Investigations Department said that following the interrogation, the officers were released under restrictive conditions, including being barred from the police force and from the city of Nazareth.
The two-month investigation exposed how the Bakri criminal organization allegedly managed to take over the municipality's systems and control public funds. Among other things, money allegedly flowed to members of the organization through mock transactions, protection rackets, and illicit money transfers. It is claimed that these actions worsened the municipal deficit, which is evaluated at hundreds of millions of shekels.