Background / Waiting for revenge

It was only a matter of time until Itzik Abergil's crime syndicate sought revenge for the humiliation it suffered this past January, when pictures from a security camera at Ramat Gan's City Gate Tower showed Abergil leaving the building with a bloodstained shirt after having been punched in the face by a member of a rival criminal organization, Aryeh Alperon. The pictures also showed Alperon and two other members of his clan beating up another member of Abergil's organization.

The police knew that Abergil, who heads what is considered the strongest criminal organization in Israel, could not allow this to pass, and therefore, they have been gathering every scrap of information in an effort to determine when he would strike. Yesterday, it seems, they succeeded in preventing Abergil assassins from reaching Nissim Alperon's home in Ramat Gan. This is the second time that police have saved Alperon from an assassin's bullet.

Until the incident at City Gate, the Alperons and Abergils were on relatively good terms. However, a turf war had recently developed over control of the multimillion-shekel bottle recycling business, which police believe also serves for money laundering. On that fateful day in January, representatives of the two groups met to try to resolve their differences. But the dispute quickly turned into a brawl - and the Alperons won.