The trauma of the Nova massacre tipped the scales. Despite the enormous quantities of cocaine, MDMA, ketamine, LSD and other drugs found in the home and car of 32-year-old Shahar Luca, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre who had previously been convicted of drug offenses, he was sentenced to just nine months of community service.
Prosecutors sought a five-year prison term over what they described as a “drug supermarket,” and the court found that the appropriate sentencing range was four to seven years behind bars. But Luca’s severe post-traumatic stress disorder and the rehabilitation process he had undergone led to the unusual outcome.
Luca admitted the facts in the indictment and was convicted of possession of drugs not for personal use. According to the indictment, a little over a year ago he kept a wide variety of drugs at his home in central Tel Aviv and in his car.
Police found 835.37 grams of cannabis in dozens of containers in the bedroom and kitchen, 4.68 grams of ketamine in a living room cabinet and 50 milliliters of GBL in the refrigerator door.
In his car, authorities found, among other things, 198 grams of P-METHYLMETHCATHINONE, nearly a kilogram of MDMA, about 773 grams of psilocin in 14 colorful chocolate packages labeled “Magic Mushroom,” around 627 grams of cocaine, hundreds of MDMA and methamphetamine tablets and 1,114 paper squares containing LSD.
Authorities also seized 126 vials containing 4.375 liters of ketamine, as well as amphetamine, GBL and other synthetic drugs. Prosecutors said the haul included more than 4.5 kilograms of solid drugs and tablets, along with more than three liters of liquid drugs.
The prosecutor argued that the case involved the large-scale possession of an extremely varied “drug supermarket.” She said the range of substances, the large quantities and the fact that some had already been divided into packages pointed to an intent to sell and broad distribution potential.
Drugs seized from the NOVA survivor
The prosecution asked the court to set a sentencing range of six to eight years in prison and argued there was no justification for departing from it on rehabilitation grounds.
Prosecutors stressed that Luca had two prior convictions. One was a 2020 conviction for possession of drugs not for personal use and drug trafficking in 2017, for which he served 10 months in prison.
They argued that Luca had struggled to take full responsibility for his actions and that the treatment process he had entered still did not justify avoiding imprisonment. Still, given his exceptional circumstances as a Nova survivor, prosecutors asked that he be sentenced to five years in prison.
His defense attorney, Yuval Zemer, described the severe trauma Luca experienced on October 7. According to the sentencing decision, his best friend, Mor, was shot in the head and killed while they were fleeing, and Luca lay for about five hours beneath his body inside an overturned vehicle while terrorists carried out executions nearby to ensure victims were dead.
After he was rescued and hospitalized, Luca left the hospital covered in blood and later shut himself away for months at his parents’ home in northern Israel.
The defense submitted documents showing that Luca had been recognized as a victim of hostile acts and was initially assessed as having a temporary disability of 50%, followed later by a permanent psychiatric disability of 40%.
His attorney argued that sending him to prison would “sentence him to psychological ruin,” destroy his prospects for rehabilitation and worsen the PTSD from which he suffers. He asked the court to adopt the Probation Service’s recommendation and impose community service, along with a one-year probation order.
Luca himself expressed remorse and told the court that he committed the offense during a period when he was not functioning and could see no future ahead of him.
Drugs also found in the trunk of his car
He described the treatment process he had undergone and said he wanted to continue on the path of rehabilitation and return to a normative life. The Probation Service said he had completed a day-treatment program at the Ma’ayan Hanefesh center, cooperated fully and provided clean drug tests, apart from medical cannabis, which he uses under license.
Judge Shmuel Melamed spoke at length about the seriousness of Luca’s actions and found that he “did not possess a single drug in a minimal quantity, but operated a real ‘drug supermarket,’ containing an extremely wide range of some of the hardest and most dangerous drugs listed under the law.”
According to the judge, the enormous quantity “demonstrates the depth of his involvement in the world of drugs and drastically increases the severity of the harm to the public interest.”
The judge also ruled that the possession was not spontaneous or accidental, but involved an inventory that required planning, financial means and connections with various parties.
He said distribution of the drugs could have created “enormous destructive potential for public health and safety,” although the drugs were seized before reaching users.
At the same time, the judge said the trauma Luca experienced at Nova had drastically impaired his ability to exercise balanced judgment.
“Although this condition does not exempt him from full criminal responsibility, it significantly diminishes the gravity of his moral culpability,” the judge wrote.
He set the appropriate sentencing range at four to seven years in prison, but decided to depart from it because of Luca’s rehabilitation prospects.
“I am convinced that in this special and exceptional case, the clear prospects for rehabilitation and the profound change Luca has undergone outweigh the principle of retribution,” the judge ruled.
He said Luca’s treatment relationship, persistence in therapy and proven abstinence from drugs showed that Luca “has returned to the right path and should be allowed to continue on it.”
Ultimately, Luca was sentenced to nine months of community service, fined 5,000 shekels, given a suspended driving disqualification and placed under a one-year probation order.
The judge warned him that drug use, refusal to undergo urine tests or violation of the terms of his community service could result in its termination and require him to serve the remainder of the sentence behind bars.
The court also declared him a “drug dealer.” The question of whether a seized Rolex Oyster watch will be forfeited will be decided separately.