The two haredim recently arrested on drug smuggling charges in Spain are members of the Breslov hasidic Shuvu Banim sect – the same sect whose leader, Rabbi Eliezer Berland, fled Israel after being accused of sex crimes.
Above: Rabbi Eliezer Berland
2 Hasidim Arrested For Drug Smuggling Tied To Breslov Sect Led By Alleged Sex Criminal
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The two haredim recently arrested on drug smuggling charges in Spain are members of the Breslov hasidic Shuvu Banim sect – the same sect whose leader, Rabbi Eliezer Berland, fled Israel after being accused of sex crimes. Berland’s son, a grandson and two to three other senior Shuvu Banim leaders were arrested in Israel more than a year ago on tax evasion, money laundering and related fraud charges, as well, and the sect is known to have many former and current criminals as members.
The two hasidim, one 22- and the other 23-years old, one a young married man and the other an unmarried yeshiva student, were arrested with a large quantity of drugs concealed in their vehicle.
One the hasidim lives in Jerusalem and the other lives in the northern Israeli city of Sefat.
The pair were allegedly offered a free rental car on condition it be returned in Madrid, Yeshiva World reported.
They pair apparently claim they did not know drugs were concealed in the car.
According to a report in the haredi news website Kikar HaShabbat cited by Yeshiva World, the father of one of the two hasidim was previously arrested for smuggling in a similar way.
Using haredi yeshiva students as drug mules was not an uncommon practice in the 1990s and 2000s. But by the early part of this decade, a series of well-publicized arrests had supposedly cut back that practice .
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