Thirteen of those sometimes annoying young Israelis who stop you in shopping
malls and try to get you to buy Israeli cosmetics made with mud from the
Dead Sea or Dead Sea bath salts were arrested by federal agents last
week in Houston, Texas on immigration violations.
Israeli Bath Salts Kiosk Workers Busted On Immigration Charges
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
It’s one way to have a harassment-free trip to your local shopping mall.
Thirteen of those sometimes annoying young Israelis who stop you in shopping malls and try to get you to buy Israeli cosmetics made with mud from the Dead Sea or Dead Sea bath salts were arrested by federal agents last week in Houston, Texas on immigration violations, The Houston Chronicle reports.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents made the busts of the Israelis and one Moldavian Wednesday night as they were selling cosmetics and bath salts in The Galleria and The Woodlands shopping malls. They were detained “on administrative charges of remaining in the U.S. beyond the expiration date of their tourist and student visas,” an ICE spokesman told the paper.
ICE has not released the names of those arrested, and no deportation or other information is available.
In 2011 federal agents arrested several known members of Israeli organized crime syndicates in Las Vegas and their hired enforcers. They pleaded guilty to charges including extortion in an attempt to take over shopping mall kiosks.
In January 2010, Shai Golan, an Israeli who managed kiosks in the Mexican resort town of Cancun was kidnapped, allegedly by competitors. However an investigation by Ha’aretz found that Golan was an escaped fugitive wanted in both the US and Canada for a long series of frauds. He allegedly used extortion, threats of violence and actual violence – including alleged having shots fired at the building the kiosk workers resided in and then shooting directly into theior apartment – to take over a mall kiosk company in Cancun. The kidnapping may have been staged by Golan himself or he may have been “kidnapped after cheating 'the wrong person,’” an LAPD detective told Ha’aretz. "This man is a master of fraud. He is certainly not an innocent man; he knows what he is doing," the detective said.
It is not clear what prompted ICE to investigate the Houston shopping mall kiosks and arrest the Israelis.