The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) intelligence service carried out a raid with Israel Police and Prison Service officers in November that has led to the arrest of several residents of pre-1967 Israel, Judea and Samaria on suspicion of attempting to use a UAV (drone) to smuggle cellphones to security prisoners.
Thanks to the readiness of the Prison Service several of the suspects were arrested near the Nafha Prison.
The ISA investigation has revealed the involvement of several of the suspects in various operations to smuggle cellphones to security prisoners from 2016-2018. The smuggling operations were directed by terrorists within the prison.
It was also revealed that in October 2018, several of the suspects were involved in an attempt to smuggle a large number of cellphones by means of a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (drone). During the attempt, control of the UAV was lost and it crashed outside the prison. The Israel Police located the UAV in a subsequent sweep.
The investigation revealed that practice runs with the drone had already been made. There was also telephone coordination with the prisoners regarding the spot where the UAV would deposit its 60 cellphones for collection by the prisoners.
The ISA and Israel Police located the illicit cargo which was to have been smuggled in via drone.
The investigation has shown that in addition to the aforementioned effort, the suspects had taken part in several attempts to smuggle cellphones to security prisoners in recent years. Dozens of phones had already been smuggled to prisoners in exchange for money from the terrorist organizations, the investigation revealed.
The cellphones that were seized were designated for security prisoners from the terrorist organizations who are serving long sentences for their involvement in terrorist activity and attacks.