3 Israelis, Briton Jailed on Marijuana Smuggling Charge
LONDON — Three Israelis were jailed for 10 years and a British left-wing guerrilla received a six-year term after pleading guilty Friday to smuggling $9 million worth of marijuana into Britain.
Customs officers said the smuggling attempt might have been part of a major drugs-for-arms deal involving the Christian Falangist group in Lebanon. But many details of the operation remained unclear.
Israelis Yitzhak Ferman, Moshe Shtrowise and Asher Sivan and Briton James Greenfield were arrested in 1986. Customs authorities had linked them to a ship’s container of Italian furniture that had a secret compartment holding two tons of Lebanese cannabis resin.
Customs officers found in Ferman’s briefcase what they described as a shopping list of shoulder-held SAM-7 missiles, grenade and rocket launchers and heavy machine guns.
The container with the hidden drugs was imported by a furniture “front company” run by Greenfield, jailed for 10 years in 1972 for his part in guerrilla attacks on the homes of three British government ministers.
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