Arrest
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An Israeli gang leader, wanted by Interpol, was arrested in a joint operation from a house in Bryanston, Gauteng.

The fugitive, who was on Interpol's Red Notice list since 2015, was hiding in a private home in Bryanston, a residential suburb near Johannesburg.

According to reports, the 46-year-old gang leader is attached to a criminal organization in Israel called the Abergil Organisation.

Colonel Athlenda Mathe, a police spokesperson, said that the wanted gangster was arrested with seven others in a joint operation by the Interpol and South African intelligence agencies on Thursday.

Mathe said that the man is a wanted suspect in Israel for conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder.

An Interpol South Africa-led operation consisting of members from Organised Crime, Detectives, Israeli Intelligence, Crime Intelligence, and the Special Task Force (STF) raided an identified address in Bryanston.

The suspect, who has been on Interpol's wanted list since 2015, was found hiding in South Africa, the police said.

The suspect, a 46-year-old man later identified as Yaniv Ben Simo, is a well-known fugitive who had been on the run since 2015. He is thought to be a close associate of Yitzhak Abergil, a crime boss currently jailed for murder, drug trafficking, drug cartel management, gambling, and money laundering.

Colonel Athlenda Mathe said that the house was surrounded by 4-meter-high (13ft) walls. The police seized 19 firearms - 5 assault rifles and 7 pistols, $40,000 cash, six motorcycles (three of which were reported as stolen), signal-jamming devices, four drones fitted with cameras, and eight motor vehicles.

The suspect, who is part of a notorious gang dealing in drug trafficking, extortion, and other criminal activities, is wanted in connection with two separate incidents in 2003 and 2004, in which an explosive device was placed underneath a vehicle in Israel.

The Abergil crime syndicate has, for a long time now, been a central player in Israel's criminal underworld.

Abergil was sentenced to three life sentences and an additional 30 years in prison by an Israeli court in June for his role as head of an organized crime group that carried out a bombing, which resulted in the murder of three uninvolved bystanders during an attempted hit in 2003.