Police in Israel’s north appear to have lanced a large counterfeit drug smuggling and distribution chain, rounding up 30 people:
Thousands of bootleg erectile dysfunction pills were stashed in a Tiberias synagogue by a ring of 30 co-conspirators who sold the pills across the country, police announced after making the arrests on Monday.
The network was highly organized, police said, with a clear hierarchy and division of labor, beginning with those who smuggled the pills into Israel, to an advertising branch that ran print ads and a website touting their products (alongside a disclaimer saying not to use fake erectile dysfunction pills), a customer service department that fielded phone orders placed nationwide, as well as members who worked in storage, packing, and door-to-door delivery.
One really has to stand up and take notice of one part of this story:
The suspects were mainly residents of Tiberias and the Arab town of Sheikh Danun in the North. Police said that during the raids on Sunday they searched a number of places where the pills were packed and hidden, including a local synagogue which was a principal stash spot.
While the pills do look like Viagra and Cialis, and they were put in packaging that closely mimicked that of the genuine erectile dysfunction pills, they do not contain the same chemical compounds and are liable to cause health complications, police said Monday.
So we have suspects from Tiberias (almost complete Jewish) and suspects from an Arab town working together. And they were hiding their super secret stash of smuggled sex pills in a synagogue. Sounds like a slick operation.
I’m sure all of them are now facing stiff penalties and a hard time at the hands of the authorities.
Could this be a prime example of Jews and Arabs working together to solve a common problem? Or am I getting over excited prematurely?
