In September 2012, Yossi Castro, a suspected member of the notorious Israeli crime family known as the Abergil Organisation, was assassinated in an attack there involving a car bomb.

Fast-forward to November 2013 and Shimmy Anu of Israel was gunned down in Johannesburg.

The following year, in August 2014, Dotan Shukrun and his relative, Carmi Shukrun (sometimes spelled Shukron), were also murdered in Johannesburg.

They reportedly fled their home country, Israel, shortly after Castro’s murder and were subsequently found dead near Hartbeespoort Dam – they had been shot and set alight.

‘Abergil versus Mosley fight’

DM168 can now reveal that Israeli authorities suspect Castro’s murder in Israel in 2012 was part of a fight there between two rival organised crime groups, which also appear to operate in South Africa.

Anu was reportedly linked to one of those groups, which Israel authorities labelled the Mosley Group. Shukrun was allegedly involved with the rival Abergil Organisation.

The murders of Anu and Shukron in South Africa suggest those opposing Israeli crime syndicates have been operating in this country for several years.

Court papers filed in the Tel Aviv District Court in 2018, which DM168 has seen and which relate to suspects in another organised crime case there, allege that tensions previously arose between the Abergil Organisation and the Mosley Group.

At one point it was not clear when certain members of the Abergil Organisation were believed to have defected and joined the Mosley Group.

“Thus, the members of the Abergil group… became suspicious that the Mosley Group was responsible for the murder of Yossi Castro,” the court papers said.

Abergil Organisation members, in an apparent revenge plot, wanted to go after the Mosley Group.

Arrest at a casino

Among those they planned to target, the court papers said, was one Shay Mosley (sometimes also spelled “Moslie” or “Musli”).

Daily Maverick previously reported that a 2015 statement on a South African government website said that an individual named Shay “Moslie” had been arrested that year at Montecasino in Johannesburg.

A South African Police Service (SAPS) statement from October 2015 described him as an Israeli fugitive.

It said he had allegedly committed crimes in Israel in 2012 (which happens to be the year Castro was assassinated there) before fleeing to South Africa.

“He was arrested by Interpol after a request for his extradition was received from the Israeli law enforcement authorities,” the SAPS said. “He is wanted in his home country, where he is due to face three murder and four conspiracy-to-commit-murder charges.”

In 2018, three years after his arrest in South Africa, it was reported that Israel had withdrawn its extradition case against Mosley, whose legal representative said it was evidence that there was no case against him.

Assassinations in South Africa

Meanwhile, Shukrun’s murder in Johannesburg in 2014 fits into a web of crime stretching between Israel and South Africa.

DM168 can now also reveal that Shukrun was allegedly linked to one of Israel’s most wanted suspects, Yaniv Yossi Ben Simon, who was arrested in Gauteng in November 2022 and was also accused of having links to the Abergil Organisation.

Earlier this month, DM168 reported that allegations against Simon in Israel connected South Africa to that country’s biggest organised crime investigation to date, known as Case 512.

Simon had apparently been living in South Africa since 2007 and DM168 previously reported that the Abergil Organisation’s boss, Yitzhak Abergil, was probably in this country before that.

Attempted murder in Israel

Abergil is now serving jail time in Israel for various crimes.

A 2021 Israeli court judgment, linked to Case 512, detailed allegations against the Abergil Organisation.

It said several suspects including Shukrun, Simon and Abergil were indicted for an assassination attempt in Israel back in 2002. (DM168 previously established that Abergil was likely in South Africa sometime that year.)

According to the 2021 Israeli court judgment, a witness had once alleged that they recalled a certain incident in which Shukrun was involved.

‘Weapon under the couch’

The witness had claimed: “Dotan [Shukrun], he took the weapon that was under the couch, and then they talked to each other that they were going out for some kind of assassination, but I didn’t know exactly what kind of assassination they were going for, they left the apartment”.

It is understood the assassination attempt referred to was one against Zeev Rosenstein, a crime boss and rival of the Abergil Organisation, who according to some Israeli publications, became known as “the wolf with seven lives” because he had survived that many assassination attempts.

The 2021 judgment alleged Shukrun was one of the Abergil Organisation’s “executive members”.

It also alleged that Simon “served as a manager” in the organisation “in the field of drug offences and violence”.

Simon is yet to answer those allegations in a court.

He remains in custody in South Africa.

Along with seven other suspects who were arrested with him in November, he is expected back in a Gauteng court towards the end of this month.

Simon may face extradition to Israel where he is wanted in connection with crimes including car bombs. DM168

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.