Immigration cop charged with helping organized crime ring

A detective in the Immigration Police was indicted yesterday for allegedly belonging to an organized crime ring and supplying it with information and other services in exchange for money and sexual favors.

The detective, Tiran Zalai, is charged with warning Kamel Iyat, a member of the reputed Hariri-Iyat crime ring, about upcoming police raids on Iyat's casino. Zalai also allegedly advised Iyat on where to locate the casino to avoid police detection and gave him information about an ongoing murder investigation - including the name of a police informant working in the Jaljulya area. In exchange, Zalai received half the casino's profits ; the crime ring also supplied him with prostitutes free of charge on several occasions, according to the charges.

The indictment's second count accuses Zalai of involvement in collecting protection money from a Petah Tikva brothel. At one point, he also opened his own brothel, which employed two prostitutes.

The third count charges that Zalai conspired with an Income Tax Authority employee to extort money from businessmen. The employee would open tax investigations against them, sometimes unjustifiably, and Zalai would then contact them and offer to have the case closed in exchange for a bribe. The two allegedly pocketed tens of thousands of shekels from the scheme.

Zalai also allegedly took a bribe from a prisoner in exchange for getting him assigned to a different prison.

The indictment, prepared by the Justice Ministry's Police Investigations Department, charges him with bribe-taking, extortion, fraud, breach of trust, obstructing justice, owning a brothel, conspiracy to commit a crime and other offenses. The PID is seeking to have him remanded until the end his trial.

Attorney Dana Hadad, representing Zalai, said her client denies all the charges.