Israeli mob figure killed in bombing

Death dominates nation's airwaves

An Israeli police officer from the bomb unit walked away from a car as a colleague examined the scene after an explosion yesterday killed a crime family boss with a long list of enemies. (Moti Milrod/ Associated Press)

JERUSALEM - One of Israel's best-known outlaws, a crime family boss with a long list of enemies in the country's increasingly brazen underworld, was killed yesterday when a bomb exploded under his rental car near a busy Tel Aviv intersection.

The midday slaying of Yaakov Alperon was described by Israeli media as the boldest hit yet in a string of turf wars that have killed dozens of gangsters and at least eight bystanders in the last three years. A 13-year-old boy and two other pedestrians were slightly wounded in yesterday's blast.

Israelis, who are far more accustomed to violent clashes with their Palestinian neighbors, were transfixed by the slaying. It dominated the airwaves and overshadowed news of ongoing rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Television stations interrupted regular programming to show the 51-year-old mobster's bloodied body slumped out of a door of the burning car, clad in the same polo shirt he had worn during a morning appearance in court.

Tel Aviv Police Chief Ilan Franco called the killing "an extremely serious event" that "likely happened because of an internal conflict within the Tel Aviv crime world."

Yossi Sedbon, a former police chief in the city, said: "The meaning of this is simple: The battles between these criminal gangs will continue and the families will be even more driven to avenge his death. I fear the bloody red line will be crossed forever."

Suspicion initially fell on three rival crime families - two of them are involved with the Alperon family in a battle for control of a lucrative bottle recycling racket.

Crime gangs in Israel also fight over control of gambling clubs and illegal drugs.

Despite shootings and bombings that have prompted many of his rivals to travel with bodyguards in armored vehicles, Alperon had refused to do so, often telling reporters he was not afraid.

He was driving alone in the car when it blew up near a bus stop at the corner of Namir and Yehuda Maccabi streets, not far from Tel Aviv's courthouse, police said. Witnesses described a huge explosion that shook the ground.

Army Radio said police suspected the bomb had been placed under the car while it was parked at the courthouse.

Alperon was known in Israel as Don Alperon. He and his brothers gave frequent television interviews and were parodied on comedy shows. His immediate family even took part in a reality TV show.

The son of Jewish immigrants from Egypt, Alperon and his older brother, Nissim, dropped out of school to work and help the family after their eldest brother was killed in combat while serving in the Israeli army. The two brothers drifted into crime and, according to the newspaper Maariv, were among the first in Israel to open a pirate television station.

Over the years, police have focused numerous investigations on the two brothers, who together headed the family's growing crime ventures but never expanded outside Israel and had relatively modest lifestyles. They have been in and out of jail, and in and out of hiding.

Army Radio said police believed Alperon might have been killed because of a dispute between him and the Abutbul and Abergil families over a multimillion-dollar-a-year bottle recycling operation.

Police say criminals sell restaurants protection in exchange for empties, giving crime families a source of income that appears legitimate.