Officers from the Tirat Carmel police station walked into an apartment in Haifa’s Central Carmel neighborhood and found a drug laboratory. They left with about seven kilograms of cannabis substances. Police reported the raid on Friday.
The apartment had been flagged as a suspected production site. After the search, Assistant-Chief Yechiel Bohadana, who commands the Coastal Police, signed an administrative closure order and had the premises shut down. Police described the raid as part of an ongoing crackdown on drug trafficking and distribution.
The Tel Aviv case
It came a week after a much larger bust. The Tel Aviv Central Unit had tracked a network for weeks in an undercover investigation, then moved in and arrested nine suspects. Police seized large sums in foreign currency and shekels, plus dozens of kilograms of a substance suspected to be the synthetic drug known as “Doctor.”
Police called the facility one of the largest laboratories found in years, an organized setup that flooded the party scene with unprecedented quantities. Investigators say the suspects worked as one network. Some manufactured the drug in fully equipped labs, each according to their role. Others ran distribution through criminals who pushed exceptionally large volumes onto the local market.
Deaths in the past month
Five young people were found dead after drug use in the past month alone. Police say it is not yet clear whether those deaths are connected to the Tel Aviv operation, and nothing in the report ties them to the Haifa raid.
A police source told Walla: “In recent months, toxic drugs have been distributed across the country disguised as various substances, and special forces are doing whatever it takes to locate them.”
