A Chabad emissary from Safed was arrested in the Madrid airport late last week after being found in possession of four kilograms of cocaine.
Though the drugs were stashed in one of his suitcases, his friends told Haaretz he was fooled into smuggling the cocaine.
Eliyahu Hecht, 57, a father of six who works for the global charity organization Kollel Chabad, was returning to Israel from Costa Rica, where he was fund-raising for a soup kitchen operated by Kollel Chabad in Safed. He was arrested during a stopover in Madrid, and friends say he only managed to contact his family yesterday.
"He said he was asked by his host in Costa Rica to take a suitcase and deliver it to a woman in Spain," one of the friends, Uri, told Haaretz. "Eliyahu refused, and then the host started telling him, 'how dare he suspect him and how dare he refuse after staying under his roof and eating from his table.' So Eliyahu agreed to the request, but not before checking the suitcase for anything suspicious. It turns out the man still managed to hide the drugs inside."
The organization contacted the Israeli Embassy in Madrid at Hecht's arrest, and Kollel Chabad activists in Safed have begun fund-raising for Hecht's legal defense and to support his family. They said they asked everyone to contribute as much as they can.
Rabbi Ze'ev Crombi, who runs the soup kitchen, told Haaretz that Hecht was detained "in very difficult conditions - without kosher food and without tefillin [phylacteries]. He says detention there is worse than hell."
"Eliyahu is a good, honest man who did his job faithfully, and it's impossible for him to have done what they say he did," Crombi added. "The heart breaks to think of him in that horrific place." Spanish police and the Israeli embassy confirmed the arrest but declined to provide details on the case.
Rabbi Eliyahu Hecht is a relative of Rabbi Shea Hecht, who is a spokesman for Sholom Rubashkin's defense committee.
אל תגיד לי זה לא יקרה. שערוריית מזוודות הסמים של בחורי הישיבה העצורים ביפן זיעזעה את העולם החרדי, וכולם חשבו כי המסר נקלט וזו תהיה הפעם האחרונה בה יתפתה אדם משלנו להעביר מזוודה לאדם אחר, אך מסתבר כי למרבה הצער התמונה אינה כך.
סיפור חדש וכואב נחשף כעת על אברך חסיד חב"ד מצפת א.ה. העובד כגבאי צדקה עבור ארגון החסד העולמי כולל חב"ד, ששהה בשבוע שעבר בקוסטה ריקה שמרכז אמריקה, שם גייס כספים עבור המטרות החשובות ובראשם בית התבשיל בצפת.
בהיותו בעבר במדינה הכיר יהודי מקומי שתמך בפעילות בעין יפה, וגם הפעם סייע בתרומה נכבדה ביותר למשולח הישראלי. אלא שלקראת נסיעתו ארצה, ביקש הנדיב "בקשה צנועה" להעביר מזוודה לגב' יהודיה בבית הכנסת בספרד, שם היה על המשולח לעצור לחניית ביניים.
המשולח חשש אך לא העיז לסרב לנדיב הנחמד שאף הראה לו את תכולת המזוודה שהכילה פריטים רגילים לכל דבר, תוך שהוא דוחק בו בחלקת לשון ובחיוך רחב לעזור ולא להשיב ברעה תחת טובה. המשולח הסכים ויצא עם המזוודה לספרד. אלא שבשדה התעופה בספרד התברר למרבה השערוריה כי בדפנות המזוודה הכפולות היו לא פחות מארבע קילו סם קשה, והחסיד הובל אל בית המעצר המקומי, יומיים קודם חג החנוכה.
העסקנים בארץ הקודש יצרו קשר במהירות עם הקונסוליה הישראלית, והתברר כי החוק הספרדי נוקשה ביותר, וכי למרבה הבושה בבתי הכלא במדינה שוהים עשרות ישראלים שהעבירו סמים, חלקם נפלו בפח כאשר העבירו מזוודות לאחרים. שלטונות בית המעצר מסרבים עד לשעה זו אפילו להכנסת אוכל כשר, והעצור שוהה כמעט בצום מזה מספר ימים!
רק בערב השבת הגיע האישור לרבה הראשי של המדינה להיכנס לבקר את העצור, אך הביקור יתקיים רק ביום שני, אך גם לרב בעצמו לא ניתן אישור להכנסת אוכל כשר. בנתיים נותרה משפחתו של העצור בארץ הקודש, כאשר חגם הפך לאבל, ומטה לחמם נשבר.
מדובר במשפחה ברוכת ילדים במצב כללי קשה ביותר גם בימים שבשגרה, קל וחומר בימים אלו, כאשר המשפחה נותרה ללא מפרנס. קודם השבת לקחו על עצמם עסקני הקהילה החב"דית בצפת לסייע לעצור ולמשפחה, ובברכת רב הקהילה הרב מרדכי ביסטריצקי החלו המאמצים לעזרתו ולעזרת המשפחה.
בדרשת שבת קודש בבית הכנסת המרכזי של חב"ד בצפת שנשא ראש הישיבה החב"דית בעיר הרב יוסף יצחק וילשאנסקי הוא קרא לכל חברי הקהילה לפתוח את ליבם וכיסם, ולסייע לחבר הקהילה הזקוק לרחמי שמים ולסיוע כלכלי על מנת להעניק לו ייעוץ משפטי. העסקנים מבקשים את הציבור לסייע כל אחד כפי יכולתו.
Colel Chabad !!! SHAME . SHAME .SHAME
ReplyDeleteאם היה עונה אמת כששאלו אותו אם יש לו חבילה שקיבל, זה לא היה קורה.
ReplyDelete"תמים" או לא תמים?
ReplyDeleteBSD The poor guy was used and framed. No shame on Colel Chabad - shame on the damn lowlife yemach shemo who used his temimus to give him a package like that.
ReplyDeleteAnd no one should ever take a package for anyone without checking.
BS"D Another boys in Japan situation except this poor guy did not know he was doing anything illegal. You should make that clear in your headline. And whoever that lowlife is in Costa Rica that gave him the package should be imprisoned at hard labor for the rest of his lousy life. Too many Jews, especially ex-Israelis, are involved in the Latin American drug trade as dealers and money launderers and it is disgusting.
ReplyDeleteIsraeli Chabad emissary nabbed in Madrid with 4kg of cocaine
ReplyDeleteFriends of the arrested man say he was fooled into smuggling the cocaine as he was returning to Israel after a fund-raising trip to Costa Rica.
I love the way the suspect emphasizes his doing the task because he did not want to hurt someone's feelings. Come on. He is a 57 year old guy who has been around enough. I will admit I do not know the truth. If he is innocent I hope he gets off. But every criminal caught smuggling uses that line.
ReplyDeletethe religious ARE THE ONES WHO SHOULD BE THOROUGHLY CHECKED at airports. they wrongfully think that because they are religious, they will be trusted , and they'll be ok.
ReplyDeletedead wrong!
another chabad who will spend 20 years behind bars , if he stays in spain.
if spain accepts to extradite him to israel, the drug smuggler will have great chances to avoid jail .chabad have good connections with the israeli government .
who would have thought that this pius man
was carrying cocaine ?
he's gonna deny it, i'm sure.
'it's not mine'.... someone planted it into his suitcase'.....his lawyer will say .
costa rica ? fundraising a soup kitchen ?
LOL !!!
the fundraising is the cocaine he was carrying to sell for millions .
eliyahu hecht is a drug dealer .
the drug dealer is not the puerto rican guy from bedford stuyvesandor a gang member from the south bronx .
he will have to prove it.
the host who gave him the package and the name and address in spain of the woman he was supposed to give it to.
i'm sure the authorities in costa rica won't find the host .or if they ever do, the host will deny everything .
he will have to sit in jail, ' all innocent', like sholom rubashkin .
chabad will do anything for money. AND TAKING BIG RISKS , too.
This is becoming a joke with dire consequences for all yidden. The same excuse was offered by those bochurim in Japan who also claimed they were doing a "favor" for a friend who asked them to take some suitcases. ANYONE who has ever flown on El Al or any other airline knows that you simply don't carry luggage given to you by someone else no matter how well you think you know them. Clearly, this rav knew what he was doing and his story really lacks credibility.
ReplyDeleteWow. 4 kg cocaine is about the volume of a gallon jug of distilled water. That is a lot of volume to not notice
ReplyDeleteMy heart goes out to the families effected. It is very easy to hide a large amount of cocaine in a suitcase. The Mexican drug cartels are constantly being busted by the DHS with drugs in the suitcase. They take out the "kishkes" of the suitcase, and replace it with rock like substance of coke. With a 25lb. Suitcase, you wouldn't know the difference. The easiest way the DHS catches these guys is by taking out the contants of a suspected suitcase, only then can you feel the weight diffrence.
ReplyDeleteI was involved in this specific case on the side of law enforcement. Unfortunately, many in the press, including the liberal Jewish press, saw this as an opportunity to spin their prejudices against the Orthodox. The details of sad. However, the media and the liberal Jewish establishment actions are sadder.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Ze'ev Crombi, .....told Haaretz that Hecht was detained "in very difficult conditions - without kosher food and without tefillin ...He says detention there is worse than hell." wow no tefillin and no kosher, sure, hell it is, but not as bad as the people he harms by hooking them on cocain! Does Mr Crombie think about that?
ReplyDeleteBefore you make a comment,
ReplyDeletesay some tehillim for ELIYAHU RACHAMIM BEN ROCHEL who is innocent and very special and good person.
I know the one who gave him the suitcase. He is a very suspicious fellow and although Eli was uncomfortable to take the suitcase, he felt obligated to his "host" and therefore he checked all the contents that were placed in the suitcase...... but still fell into this dirty trap (apparently it was hidden in the seams of the suitcase).
NOW HE NEEDS BIG RACHAMEI SHAMAYIM!
THIS IS REAL PIDYON SHVUIM!
a good idea, somebody asked me a few years ago 2 take a few bottols of taster's choice coffee 2 canada, i refused and said: ill buy it and ull pay me! y do i have 2 take the bottols from u ? otherwise i dont take anything ! its a good hagdoorah !!
ReplyDeleteHow many Jews with money are there in Costa Rica that a tzedoka collector is sent there to feed his community IN Israel? Though Costa Rica does have very beautiful beaches and coconuts. You have to know the people that you deal with. A "host" is not a random stranger off the street and you have to establish a certain sense of trust of people that you travel to across the globe to collect monies from. I wish him the best and hopefully the story, no matter how unlikely it sounds, is actually true. And the court believes him.
ReplyDelete4 kilograms of cocaine is not a joke! Average street value in the North East U.S. is $220,000 dollars. 3 gram/8 ball in NYC costs $150. At least he is lucky that he was caught in Spain with "lax" European sentencing penalties. In the U.S. he would be facing 10 years minimum.
כך דרכו של יצר הרע, תחילה נעשה משולח לממון, כי כלתה פרוטה.
ReplyDeleteאחר כך ישב לאכול כל מיני מאכלים שאין ידוע מקורם.
משם ישב עם עמי ארצות וסוחרי סמים.
מזוודה ש"לא ידע" על תכולתה, ויושב עתה עם פושעים בספרד
ולא מצא 4 קילו של קוקאין? בשביל מה הוא בכלל צריך להתפלל? עוד מעט תגידו לי שהוא ירא שמיים
ReplyDeletebs'd
ReplyDeleteM.Z. from tzfat
to elozer: I'm a personal friend of the hechts. If you know any information that would clear eli hecht's name,you must inform the authorities or at least the kollel Chabad world headquarters. Dont stand idly by the blood of this man or his horribly suffering family. Just davening is not enough!!! Gevald,gevald!!!
the drugs were found in the cuffs of the pants.
ReplyDeleteFour kilograms of cocaine in the cuffs of a few pairs of pants?
Please.
How gullible do you think we are?
Elihay Hecht is NOT A RABBI
ReplyDeletehe is a very nice individual who learned in Tifferes in Moristown during around 1 year
He is a bal chessed, always helping ppl
I have a relative who is involved with Chabad and on one occasion agreed to take a package, supposedly containing sefarim. He told the customs people in Europe and spent well over an hour being questioned, essentially interrogated.
ReplyDeleteHe no longer takes any packages for anyone, except for close family, and even then he thoroughly checks the contents--for one thing, 'mid'var sheker tirchak,' ie he does not want to lie to EL Al security or anyone else.
It's dangerous to agree to take anything from a stranger, notwithstanding the numerous postings on frum websites, "Suitcase to Eretz Yisroel" or whatever.
Years ago, a pregnant woman was questioned by El Al security in Europe. Something made her seem suspicious. Her luggage, given to her by her Arab boyfriend (who was the father of her unborn child), contained a bomb set to detonate when the plane was airborne). He had told her not to tell El Al security that he had packed the suitcase, not to say anything about him, and he would meet her in New York.
Those who take a suitcase or package are endangering their own lives, their freedom, and the lives of fellow travellers.
Having said that, my firm conviction is this guy was duped.