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Cellphone smuggling bust: Palestinian hid devices in lower abdomen

The Israel Prisons Service notes the phones were intended to be used to direct terror attacks that would take place outside prison walls.

By David Jablinowitz, World Israel News 

The Israel Prisons Service says it has apprehended a Palestinian security detainee who had tried to smuggle cellphones into Megiddo jail in northern Israel.

The suspect is identified as a member of the Fatah movement, the ruling organization in the Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas.

According to the Israeli statement, the smuggling attempt was uncovered last Tuesday as the security detainee was being brought by Israeli security forces for detention at Megiddo.

“During the procedure of processing the detainee’s entry into the prison, his behavior drew the suspicion” of the guards, says the Israel Prisons Service, and “the magnetometer buzzed non-stop from the area of his stomach.”

The detainee was then said to have been taken to a hospital, where an X-ray showed “three suspicious packages in his lower abdomen,” says the prisons service.

“Three wrapped packages” of 11 phones and 15 SIM cards were extricated from the detainee’s body, according to the statement.

The detained Palestinian was placed in solitary confinement and a police file was opened to investigate the case, it added.

The Israel Prisons Service notes the phones were intended to be used to direct terror attacks that would take place outside prison walls.

According to the statement, attempts to smuggle phones into Israeli jails with the objective of reaching the hands of Palestinian terrorists “are continuing constantly,” through the method of giving the devices to detainees who are sent to jail for relatively small offenses but are then used as conduits to supply the terrorists.

It notes that those relaying the phones are endangering their own lives by having the devices placed in their bodies.

The Israel Prisons Service vowed to remain alert to try to thwart future attempts, as well.