Iran-linked Turkish gun-smuggling gang nabbed in Israel

Three illegal immigrants from Turkey were arrested in Israel in connection with Iran-linked gun-smuggling ring, which also included ties to terror plot.

By World Israel News Staff

A gang of Turkish weapons smugglers infiltrated into Israel and worked with an Iranian arms dealer to illegally transfer firearms from Jordan into Israel, Israel’s State Attorney’s Office announced on Sunday.

In a statement released by the State Attorney’s Office, prosecutors announced that they have filed charges in the Nazareth District Court against three Turkish nationals for weapons offenses and for infiltrating into Israel after having been deported.

The indictment was filed by Ohad Cohen of the State Attorney Office’s Northern District Criminal Division against Rahman Gokyer, Oktay Asci, and Yunus Ozel in connection to a weapons-smuggling ring set up by the three over the summer.

According to the charge sheet, in July of this year, Asci invited Gokyer to join a pistol-smuggling network, with Ozel enlisted to serve as a middleman for weapons transactions at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station.

Under the scheme drawn up by Asci and Gokyer, the ring would coordinate weapons shipments from an Iranian weapons dealer, who would ship pistols to Jordan.

From Jordan, the smuggling ring would arrange for the handguns to be clandestinely transferred across the border into Israel by Jordanian laborers employed in Israel.

Gokyer was assigned to receive the pistols from the couriers after they entered Israel, store the weapons, and sell them to third parties. For his services, he was promised $1 million.

Asci also was involved directly in the weapons transfers, and in one instance received a package containing a handgun, which he hid in sand near his apartment in the coastal city of Bat Yam before transferring it to a third party.

In September of this year, after being deported, Asci and Gokyer agreed to infiltrate into Israel from Jordan along with several other co-conspirators. The two then flew from Turkey to Saudi Arabia and then to Jordan, with plans to smuggle three pistols into Israel.

After their plans to smuggle the handguns went awry, however, Asci and Gokyer attempted to infiltrate into Israel without the pistols – only to be caught while crossing near Kibbutz Sha’ar HaGolan in northern Israel.