Not spy but gang hitman, news site claims of Israeli arrested in Malaysia with six guns, 200 bullets

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Israeli news site Mako has reported that the 36-year-old Israeli man who was arrested in Kuala Lumpur on March 27, after he was found in possession of six handguns and 200 bullets, was allegedly a mobster on a mission to assassinate an individual by the name of Eran Haya who is allegedly the head of a crime family.

The man, who is currently in police custody, is said to be part of the Musli brothers crime family, and could have entered Malaysia due to a dispute between the two rival groups, news site Times of Israel also reported.

“Several Hebrew-language news outlets later identified the suspect as Shalom Avitan, an associate of the Musli brothers crime family.

“The two syndicates have been engaged in a violent feud for months,” Times of Israel said yesterday.

The Israeli daily also stated that the man’s home in Tel Aviv had been the target of several grenade attacks by Haya’s men while he was in Malaysia, according to free-to-air news channel, Channel 12.

The suspect was arrested two weeks after he entered Malaysia through Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on March 12.

At a press conference yesterday, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said that the cops had not ruled out the possibility that the man could be a member of Israeli intelligence, though the suspect told authorities he had entered Malaysia to hunt down another Israeli citizen due to a family dispute.

Three Malaysians, including a married couple, were arrested yesterday and have been remanded for seven days on suspicion of supplying weapons and acting as a driver to the Israeli suspect, Razarudin told Reuters yesterday.

In 2018, a Palestinian scientist was shot dead in Kuala Lumpur by two unidentified men in a killing that the Hamas militant group suggested was carried out by Israel's Mossad intelligence service. Israel denied the allegations.