Fast Draw – Criminals vs. the IDF

Fast Draw – Criminals vs. the IDF

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Illustration photo (IDF Spokesman's Office)
Illustration photo (IDF Spokesman’s Office)

A top military police officer told reporters this weeks that there’s a significant rise in the number of attempts by criminal organizations to steal IDF weapons. The MP reported a rising motivation among criminal elements, aimed at stealing weapons by cooperating with soldiers. Brig. Gen. Golan Mimon, chief of the IDF military police, said that “some of the criminal incidents this year involved IDF weaponry. It’s a rising trend, and we are working – overtly and covertly – to put an end to it.”

According to records MP investigators discovered to or three complex cases a year, where criminals tried to steal IDF weaponry. Over the last year, however, the number rose to 11 incidents. According to an MP officer investigators recently discovered a soldier attempting to sell drugs, and a covert operative slowly gained his trust. About six weeks ago the soldier bought – through the covert agent – a light military firearm for 40 grams of cocaine, revealing his intent to commit murder.

So that was the Military Police. What’s new? Instead of telling us how severe the situation is, the IDF has to start actually guarding its bases. People can enter some of them using their healthcare provider records, and plastic cards open the doors into many IDF bases.

IHLS – Israel Homeland Security

But that’s just the beginning. The IDF locks its arms warehouses with ridiculously simple locks, apparently they’ve never heard of more complex alarm systems. In this situation you can’t really blame the criminals for being tempted. It gets worse every year, every relevant officer keeps warning against further deterioration, and yet, amazingly, nothing is ever done.

You only have to look at the entrance gates of most bases to understand the problem. True, the entry gates are just a symptom, but the problem itself is much more complex. The Chief of Staff should immediately appoint a top officer and grant him the appropriate authority. That officer should conduct random inspections in various bases, discover vulnerabilities and court-martial those responsible. If nothing changes the situation will only get worse.

The in the IDF they think we, the citizens, don’t understand anything. Next year the Military Police will report the same rise in weapon thefts.

Military Police officers say the trend, which includes breaking into arm warehouses inside bases, has a kit ti do with the closure of the border with Egypt, which was a relatively dependable smuggling route. It led to a rise in the price of stolen weapons – rifles went from 2,000 shekels to 40,000. The officers stressed that their preventative measures actually led to less weapons being stolen this year, 62 compared to 89 in 2012, despite the larger number of attempts.