Hawara checkpoint
צילום: AP
2 officers suspected of taking bribes
Border Guard officers arrested for allowing Palestinian trucks to pass through checkpoints
The police investigations unit arrested on Monday two Border Guard officers, on suspicion that they received bribes to allow Palestinian trucks and vehicles to pass through checkpoints in the Jerusalem area without undergoing routine security checks.
Four civilians were also arrested along with the officers, and are scheduled to go before the court Tuesday for a hearing on the remand of their arrests.
The arrests came after an undercover investigation that lasted a number of months.
Preliminary findings indicate that the civilians transferred funds to the officers, both of whom are NCOs, in exchange for which they allowed vehicles from the Palestinian territories to pass without searching them for illegal substances.
Police suspect the sums handed to the officers add up to hundreds of thousands, and that the goods that passed through the checkpoints were mostly agricultural.
However, because the goods on board the trucks were not checked, police are currently investigating whether they included weapons.
