Israeli law enforcement officials confiscated approximately NIS 20 million worth of cigarettes smuggled into the West Bank through the port of Ashdod, police announced Wednesday morning.
The investigation into the smuggling began after customs officials were alerted to two containers at the port whose customs declarations appeared to be false, claiming they contained “household goods.”
Maritime Police and customs agents then launched an undercover operation, closely following the containers as they were loaded onto trucks and began traveling toward the West Bank. After some time, the officers pulled the trucks over and arrested the drivers, who are east Jerusalem residents.
The suspects and the containers were brought back to the Ashdod customs department for questioning and inspection, respectively.
IDF indicts two soldiers for smuggling cigarettes, stealing ammo, tax offenses linked with Gaza
In an unrelated but similar incident, the IDF’s military prosecution filed two additional indictments against two suspects ranked Sergeant First Class for offenses linked with smuggling goods into Gaza, tax offenses, and other offenses, the military said earlier this month.
The indictments followed joint investigations by Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Israel Police, the Military Police’s Special Investigations Unit, and the Israel Tax Authority.
The first defendant was involved in an extensive network of smuggling cigarettes and other goods into the Gaza Strip, along with their father and colleagues in their military unit, from February 2024 until January 2026, the indictment says.
Additionally, they took hundreds of rounds of ammunition and magazines from military stockpiles and sold them to civilians for thousands of shekels.
The second defendant was contacted by the first at the end of 2024, requesting that they carry out smuggling cigarettes into the Gaza Strip, the indictment says.
The two smuggled approximately 50 cartons of cigarettes over a period of several months, which generated approximately NIS 750,000.
