POLICE BUST JEWISH-ARAB NETWORK SUSPECTED OF TRADING HASHISH FOR
INTELLIGENCE WITH HEZBOLLAH

Eleven Israelis - Jews and Arabs - have been charged with running one
of the largest drug smuggling networks in the North of the country
since the Israel Defense Forces' withdrawal from Lebanon.

The ring, captured about a month ago following a joint Shin Bet and
northern police district investigation, provided the Hezbollah with
intelligence and military equipment, including photographs of northern
sites, night-vision glasses, an Israeli Statistical Yearbook and
electronic dictionaries. In exchange, it received hundreds of kilgrams
of hashish from Lebanon.

The defendants are residents of Ghajar village on the Lebanese border,
Kiryat Shmona and the central region. Their contact man with the
Hezbollah was Lebanese drug dealer Ramzi Nahara, who was killed in
December 2002, when his car blew up in Lebanon. Hezbollah accused
Israel of his liquidation.

The ring's members confessed to smuggling four to five tons of hashish
through the Lebanese border, but the police assume the actual amount
was two or three times larger.

The primary suspect is Sa'ad Qahmouz, 40, of Ghajar. The police say he
is a veteran drug dealer. The charge sheet presented to Nazereth's
District Court yesterday implies that Qahmouz was in the drug dealing
business with Ramzi Nahara before the IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon,
and resumed contact with him in April 2001.

Qahmouz is charged with bringing into the business his son Yosef, 21,
his brother Ahmed, 22, his girlfriend Dorit Edri, 34, of Kiryat
Shmona, and Charlie (Shalom) Peretz, 33, of Kiryat Shmona.

Qahmouz operated dozens of mobile phones, with which he kept in touch
with his friends and with his contacts in Lebanon, including Ramzi
Nahara. Police say several of the phones contained SIM cards which
were replaced frequently, making it difficult to trace the person
using the phone or to monitor the calls.

The police discovered that Nahara and his men in Lebanon monitored the
Israeli police radio network, alerting the drug dealers in Israel of
police barriers, and warning them when to get the drugs out of Ghajar.

The drug transfer was made in the Hatsbani wadi, north of the village.
There is no fence marking the border, which cuts the village in two.
Thus the drug dealers allegedly entered Lebanon with no difficulty.
The Qahmouz family lives in the northern part of the village, which is
in Lebanese territory. Yosef and Ahmed Qahmouz would meet Nahara's men
at the rendezvous point and get the hash from them in packages of
dozens of kilograms each. On four occasions, the Qahmouz's smuggled
the drugs from Ghajar stashed in their car's reserve tire.

Once the hashish was out of the village, the gang members sold it to
drug dealers throughout Israel.

According to the charges, Qahmouz, his son and brother managed to
become friends with the soldiers at the Ghajar village's exit
barriers. They gave the soldiers cigarettes, candy and coffee. "As a
result of these friendly ties, the soldiers did not check the
defendant's vehicle, or checked it only superficially. They also
reported to the defendants that the police had asked the army to keep
an eye on them, and told them of police activity in the area," the
charges say.

At first the gang paid the Lebanese drug dealers with cash for the
hashish. But then Nahara began demanding a different kind of payment:
Israeli books, newspapers, an Atlas, night vision glasses,
English-Hebrew and Hebrew-Arabic electronic dictionaries and a
Statistical Yearbook of the State of Israel. According to the charges,
Qahmouz and his girlfriend bought the equipment and Charlie Peretz
bought the Statistical Yearbook, which they gave Nahara at the
rendezvous point north of Ghajar.

Nahara also demanded that Qahmouz take video films of various sites in
the north of Israel, including an overview of Kiryat Shmona, and the
regions of Gush Halav, Mount Meron, Moshav Margaliot and the Manara
Cliff. Qahmouz and Edri filmed the sites with a video camera Nahara
gave them. The Qahmouz family, Edri and Peretz are charged with giving
information which could be of use to the enemy.

Charlie Peretz is charged with asking Qahmouz to buy from Nahara
revolvers with silencers. The first revolvers he received were
old-fashioned and he returned them to Lebanon. Two revolvers were
found in Peretz's possession when he was arrested and one was found in
Qahmouz's possession.

Ahmed Qahmouz and his cousin Mohammed were arrested in the Banias area
about a month ago, with about 150 kilograms of hashish in their car.
The others were arrested shortly afterward.