Smuggled weapons (archive photo)
Photo: Adi Segal, IDF
Charge: Bedouin involved in abduction plot
According to indictment, Bedouin resident of Israel cooperated with Gaza resident planning to abduct soldier, police officer in order to secure release of son jailed in Israel
The Shin Bet foiled an attempt to kidnap a soldier by a Bedouin resident of the Negev who traded weapons with a Gaza resident, according to an indictment filled Sunday in the district court in Be'er Sheva against 38-year-old Sami Abu Madiam.
The suspect has been charged with arms trading and a conspiracy to commit a crime.
According to the indictment, last month Abu Madiam received an offer from a resident of Gaza, whom he sold arms to, to kidnap a soldier or a policeman and to hide him in his house in the southern community of Rahat.
The Gazan involved in the plot was apparently hoping to secure the release of his son who serves a life term in an Israeli jail.
The Shin Bet warned Abu Madiam and instructed him to end his association with the Gaza resident, but the suspect continued nonetheless. Once the Shin Bet informed Abu Madiam that agents were on to him, the suspect told his wife to burn down the phone he used in order to converse with his Gazan associate.
The indictment specifies that Abu Madiam traded arms in the past few years with residents of the Palestinian Authority. He is accused of purchasing three handguns valued at NIS 16,000 (approximately USD 3,400), and selling them to a resident a village near Hebron who serves in the PA's Preventive Security Force.
On another occasion, he purchased from an Israeli police officer gun butts for M-16 rifles, striking pins for hand guns, and a flare gun, all of which he later sold. Abu Madiam would hide the weapons he acquired but in some cases had a hard time locating them.
Recently, police made many arrests of residents from the Gaza Strip who managed to infiltrate into Israel. A senior police official told ynet "there are many people who find their way into Israel and are involved in arms trafficking".
