Police officer: Israel criminals heading to the UAE

Impersonating themselves as businessmen, heads of Israeli criminal groups have recently started shifting their activities to the UAE, Anadolu reported yesterday.

According to the news service, Israel’s Channel 12 TV quoting a senior Israeli police officer saying that the heads of criminal groups operate via agents or travelled themselves to complete deals worth tens of millions of dollars.

These criminals “impersonate themselves as Israeli businessmen and hide the fact they are dangerous criminals,” the officer told the Israeli TV.

He noted that those criminals invested in real estate in Dubai, and in food and hotel projects to use as a cover while being involved in the drugs trade as well as money laundering.

The Israeli police officer said Israeli police are gathering information about their activities in the UAE and estimated that they would launder hundreds of millions of dollars in Dubai.

At the same time, he warned that if the criminals are caught in Dubai while engaged in drug trafficking, they may spend long periods in jails or be sentenced to death.

Following the signing of a normalisation deal between the UAE and Israel in September, dozens of agreements were signed in different fields, along with daily flights taking off between the two countries.