ГУЛаг Палестины

The attitude of the pious Jewish community, according to the same source, is: "Drugs are sold anyway. As long as it does not harm our own community and

only does good for it, it doesn't matter if we benefit from drug trade." The role of the Israelis is, in many cases, to make the connection between the religious

Jewish communities of New York and the Colombians.

The Colombians are more satisfied with this method of laundering than with any other because, for political reasons, it is a relatively secure way of which it

could be initially assumed that it was not going to be forcibly investigated by the US authorities. Only in July 1990 the situation began to change.

The Federal authorities renewed an investigation of some Williamsburg Hassids, owners of jewelry shops on 47th Street, who were suspected of laundering

drug money. The investigation focused on the brothers Naftali, Naiklosh and Yitzhak Slilesinger, and on Ya'akov Shlesinger (Naftali's son) and Milon

Jakloby, his nephew. The investigators found evidence of close connections between the Slilesingers and the Andonian brothers, members of a Colombian

family accused of laundering, almost one billion dollars. The Shlesingers were suspected of laundering money by means of a subsidiary called Bali, through

checks drawn from the account of "Camp Yereim" ["Camp of the Pious]" a Hassidic summer camp in the Catskills.

Camp Yereim denies any connection with these checks. On April 7 of this year, Rabbi Abraham Lau, a prominent Hassid from "Magen Abraham" synagogue

in Los Angeles was convicted of conspiring to launder drug money. Lau is married to the niece of the Satmar Rebbe, Moshe Teitlebaumi, who wields

enormous political influence in New York State.

Unfortunately, Lau told an undercover FBI agent about a "sacred network" of Satmar Hassids in which other Orthodox Jews had also participated. The

"sacred network", whose membership was strictly limited to pious Jews, operated in the 47th Street area in New York and was capable of laundering up to

$5 million weekly, thanks to its widespread contacts with Jewish charitable institutions.

Unfortunately, law enforcement agents in New York do not believe that the "sacred network" and the many other Jewish laundering rings have any sanctity.

In the past year the Federal activity concerning Israelis and Jews on 47th Street has greatly increased. The investigators now employ the services of many

Hebrew translators since the rings, even if composed of native American Jews, employ only "the sacred language" for their operations.

Aharon Sharir is, undoubtedly, the major Israeli launderer. He was born in Iraq about 45 years ago, immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of one

year, graduated from an Israeli high school, served with distinction in the army and became an expert in fixing delicate mechanical instruments used to mend

gold jewelry. In 1979, Sharir came to New York on a tourist visa with $6,000 in his pocket. He went into the gold business, established a small plant for

manufacturing gold jewelry and did well. Then, through another Israeli diamond trader, he discovered the laundering business. Sharir reached a laundering

activity of about $160,000 per day, six days per week (laundering is not done on the Sabbath), but in 1985 his wings were clipped when he was accused of

having swindled a New York bank to the tune of $3 million. He quickly returned the money and was sentenced to a fine and a suspended prison sentence.

In 1988 Sharir's laundering activities reached amazing heights. His gold shop on 47tll Street became one of the greatest laundering centers in the entire US.

"Three times a week," Sharir told the court at one of the many trials in which he is now testifying, "we received the cash. It used to arrive in canvas sacks, in

cardboard boxes or in suitcases. Sometimes there were a million dollars in one shipment."

Roy Lopez, representing the Colombian cartels, would arrive from Miami equipped with a document sent from Colombia which contained detailed coded

instructions about where to send the money. "Even with automatic money-counting machines it was difficult to count the money," Sharir testified. "It arrived in

bills of 5, 10 and 20 dollars. The bills, most of which had been used to sniff cocaine, had a strong odor of coke. A real stink. My employees could not stand

it. Every 2-3 hours they had to take a break, go out for some fresh air, so as not to get ill."

Sharir's role was to see to it that the money would be transported out of the US and arrive in the bank accounts of the Colombian cartels in Panama and in

Colombia. For that purpose he deposited money into his bank accounts, as though it was his profits from the shop, purchased assets for the use of the drug

cartels, bought and sold gold at inflated prices from merchants who were part of the conspiracy and concealed money through various manipulations.