The State Prosecutor’s Office has filed indictments against six southern residents for smuggling weapons, drugs, and cigarettes from Egypt and Jordan into Israel.
The indictments describe a smuggling network that operated, among other methods, using drones. The defendants are: Azzeldin Abu Alqoma (25) and Yahya Alorqan (26) from Bir Hadaj; Fouad Alziadat (30) and Fouad Sawarqa (25) from Mas’udin al-Azazma; Ahmad Abu Bader (22) from Ar’ara; and Hammad Al Abayat (29) from Rahat. They are charged with various offenses, depending on their individual involvement.
The charges include weapons importation, carrying and transporting weapons, arms trafficking and purchase, drug offenses, use of a vehicle to commit a crime, attempted weapons offenses, and violation of a lawful order.
In addition, a separate indictment was filed with the Magistrate’s Court against Mohammed Abu Lakima (22) from Segev Shalom for drug offenses, after he was involved in an attempted smuggling operation from Jordan using a drone, in which he was told it involved drugs only, although weapons were also included.
According to the indictments, the defendants were involved in numerous smuggling operations that included dozens of weapons such as machine guns, rifles, and pistols.
Some of the defendants also traded the weapons after receiving them, selling them for tens of thousands of shekels. In one case, two pistols were sold for 40,000 shekels, and in another, a MAG machine gun was sold for tens of thousands of shekels.
In one of the charges, it is alleged that one defendant traveled to Jordan several times and returned to Israel with pistols concealed in the wheels of his vehicle, which he then transferred to others in exchange for tens of thousands of shekels.
It also emerged that in one case about 10 kilograms of hashish were smuggled from Egypt to Israel via drone and later sold for tens of thousands of shekels. In another incident uncovered during the investigation, drugs that arrived from Egypt were transferred from Israel to Jordan using a drone.
In detention requests filed until the end of proceedings, the prosecution stated that the defendants repeatedly engaged in weapons and drug smuggling, thereby posing a serious risk to public safety and to residents of the state.
The prosecution also noted that in recent years, and especially since 2024, there has been a significant increase in weapons smuggling across borders, and that the flooding of the country with illegal arms poses a real risk of enabling terrorist attacks.