Israel Police arrests senior crime figure known as ‘The Arbitrator’ in major crime ring crackdown

The Israel Police said it arrested 12 suspected members of the powerful Hariri crime organization, including a senior crime leader functioning as the Israeli underworld’s chief conflict mediator who is known as “The Arbitrator,” or HaBorer in Hebrew.

The police announced on Monday that the arrests came as part of a month-long undercover investigation of suspected cases of extortion of millions of shekels from Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria, using threats and intimidation with explosive devices.

Police forces “raided the homes of the suspects in Umm al-Fahm, Tayibe, Kafr Qasim, and Nablus,” the police said, noting that the Hariri crime family “is counted among the largest crime organizations in the country and whose senior members are suspected of involvement in cases of extortion and threats, violence, shootings, the throwing of explosive devices, and even murder in recent years.”

During raids, police confiscated airsoft pistols, a remote control device, suspected drugs, weapons-related items, over NIS 80,000 (about $26,000) in cash and several vehicles.

המאבק בארגוני הפשיעה - במהלך פשיטה שבוצעה לפנות בוקר על בתיהם של יעדים מחוללי פשיעה נעצר בכיר בארגון חרירי יחד עם 11 חברי הארגון

בתום חקירה סמויה שנוהלה ביחידה המרכזית במחוז ש"י, שעיקרה עבירות של סחיטה באיומים והנחת חומר נפץ, פשטו לפנות בוקר בלשי ימ״ר ש״י ולוחמי ומסתערבי החטיבה… pic.twitter.com/jRFIzkXToN

— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) April 13, 2026

The case is relatively unusual as it involved Israeli police officers investigating Arab criminals, based in Israel and presumably being Israeli citizens, who committed crimes in Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria, requiring broad inter-agency cooperation.

The commander of the Police’s Judea and Samaria District, Moshe Pinchi, said the case had highlighted efforts to combat the cooperation between criminal organizations and terror groups in Judea and Samaria.

“We will not allow crime organizations to establish a foothold in the West Bank as a refuge or base for criminal and terror activity,” he said.

Pinchi explained that the police aim to prevent Israel-based crime organizations from establishing safe havens in Palestinian cities of Judea and Samaria as “a base for organizing the export of criminal and security terror.”

“We will reach every criminal, cut off the connection between terror funds and crime, fight the industry of stolen vehicles, the trafficking of weapons, and all the channels connecting crime to terrorism — with the goal of ensuring the security of the citizens of the State of Israel,” he vowed.

Journalist Simon Sherman explained in the Jewish News Syndicate that the five major criminal groups in Israel, including the Hariris, have “transitioned from disparate street gangs into structured organizational hierarchies that provide a parallel ‘justice system.’ This system resolves internal conflicts and land disputes through tribal arbitration, establishing the syndicates as de facto sovereigns that bypass the Israeli judiciary.”

The senior figure who was arrested allegedly functioned as the main arbitrator of disputes in this parallel justice system.

Sherman also noted that “a major influx of military-grade weapons further props up the criminal system. Criminal organizations have moved beyond small arms to using grenade launchers, weaponized drones, and standard-issue IDF explosives stolen from military bases, smuggled from Egypt or Jordan, or purchased from underground factories in Judea and Samaria.”

These weapons can, and often do, reach terror groups operating in Judea and Samaria, and Israel-based crime groups are deeply involved in smuggling operations to transport more weapons into Israel, mostly via the Jordanian and Egyptian borders.