ANT KATZ

On Israel’s list of most wanted men, Shai Musli, head of one of Israel’s wealthiest and most powerful crime families, will appear in the Randburg Magistrate’s court next Monday November 16, for a bail hearing.

But, says a South African police spokesman, while it is scheduled for a bail application, it will also be an extradition hearing for the alleged Israeli crime boss who is being sought by Interpol and Israeli authorities. Musli is under guard at an undisclosed Gauteng prison, and was arrested at Johannesburg’s Montecasino complex last month.

Local prosecutor Christo Steyn told the court that Musli’s alleged crimes in Israel include murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo Brigadier Naidoo also told Jewish Report that Musli had been arrested purely on Interpol’s Israeli extradition request. “There are no South African charges,” he said.

The Muslis are alleged to head of one of Israel’s most feared crime families. Yossi Musli, Shai’s brother, was convicted in Israel in 2007 of attempted murder of rival mobsters. Eight other members of his criminal outfit also were convicted. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and Israeli police believe Shai took charge of the gang while Yossi was in prison.

Tel Aviv police said on Tuesday their South African colleagues made the arrest as part of a co-operative investigation and through collaboration with the State Prosecutor’s Office.

Israeli authorities indicted eight members of the Musli crime family in May on a series of murder charges. Shortly thereafter, police arrested 20 more associates of the organisation on charges including conspiracy, murder, and firearms offences.

Musli associates have reportedly been relocating for some time, both to avoid Israeli police and rival criminals in Israel, according to Israeli media reports. Their main operations are now based in Romania, but, according to JTA, South Africa has also long been a refuge for gang leaders and members. Shai Musli has allegedly been hiding out in South Africa since 2012 – lying low and moving often.

Three years ago Shimmy Anu, a man with alleged ties to Israeli crime bosses, was shot dead in Johannesburg, just six months after arriving in the country. Anu was believed to have been an associate of Shai Musli. Anu’s death may have been the result of a feud between Musli and other crime rings in central Israel, JTA reported.

Israeli security officials said they had been hunting Shai Musli across the globe. At his earlier court appearance, Shai’s family (who refused to divulge their names) closed ranks, saying the Israeli authorities were lying.

SA Ideal for foreign crime syndicates

However, Israeli police say the Muslis have led a reign of terror in Tel Aviv, using their connections to the global criminal underworld, including South Africa’s, to remove rivals and expand their criminal empire.

South Africa is the ideal place for international criminal syndicates to ply their trade from, launder their wealth and expand into new markets through the country’s well-run criminal underworld, which, according to security experts, is assisted by the police’s crumbling crime intelligence system.

Rivalry and political interference within the police crime intelligence service had hamstrung the unit, according to Institute for Security Studies policing expert Dr Johan Burger, allowing organised crime to flourish. These networks, say organised crime researcher Khalil Goga, are fluid, constantly changing, and difficult to track and investigate.

Foreign organised crime gangs in South Africa’s success depend on their ability to network with local criminals, who, Goga said, “are incredibly entrepreneurial”. “The links are both formal and informal.” SA was targeted for a variety of goods, such as drugs, gold, diamonds, money-laundering, ivory, perlemoen, lobster, stolen goods, cigarettes, credit cards and identity documents.”

Professor Mark Shaw, of the University of Cape Town, said organised crime varied from city to city.

South Africa is known to be a source, a destination point, as well as a transit route for international criminal escapades, but it was the South African crime gangs that are still the biggest in the country.

Quoting The Times, the Rand Daily Mail Online site carried a story on “How South Africa has become a mafia paradise”. Rivalry and political interference have hamstrung police crime intelligence, allowing organised crime to flourish, they said.