Even now, after the dust has settled and reputed gangster Francois Abutbul has been laid to rest alongside his father, Felix, in a Netanya cemetery, calls for revenge continue to be heard throughout the city. If the past is any indication, these calls should not be dismissed. Residents of Netanya believe this time is the calm before the storm, just before the ground burns beneath our feet. According to those close to underworld figures in Netanya, the Abutbul hit was just a matter of time. At the same time, though, there are those in the city who exude a confident indifference. This murder bears no significance in the city, said a top member of a Netanya crime family the morning after the killing. Netanya awoke to yet another regular morning. This was expected. Nobody is really that broken up or emotional about the loss. Meanwhile, on the seventh floor of an apartment building on Nitza Boulevard in Netanya one of the most exclusive areas of the city, with its proximity to the beachside promenade the bereaved mother mourns the loss of her murdered son. Esther Abutbul is being comforted by her daughter, Shirli, with other family members surrounding them. In a recent meeting with one of the top criminal figures in the city, Esther Abutbul was overheard as saying: My son Francois is a dead man walking. Every day I wait for a telephone call informing me that something horrible happened to him. It is only a matter of time. She talked about him like a mother of a soldier in an elite army unit who has been called to battle, the man who met her said. And it turns out she was right. It [the phone call] came. Now there are the predictable calls for revenge. Judging by the public statements, the war between the Netanya crime families is hardly on the verge of a cease-fire. While standing over Francois open gravesite, one Abutbul family member vowed: Whoever did this will pay for it, with God's help, as early as this week. I only wish that the murderers on their motorcycles would crash into each other and die. They must pay the price. In a raspy voice, Esther screamed out: May God avenge the blood of my son. Everybody say Amen! All the mourners there yelled, Amen! A police officer watching the proceedings from the side said, This was basically a vow to carry out a hit. Breaking the rules of organized crime Francois Abutbul was murdered near 1 a.m. Sunday. He was sitting in his parked car at a gas station on the coastal highway from Tel Aviv to Haifa, near the entrance to Moshav Havazelet in the Sharon plain. Riders on a black motorcycle pulled up alongside Abutbuls car and began spraying bullets at him. The reputed mobster had no chance. The bodyguard at Abutbuls side suffered minor injuries. Police investigators believe the gunmen followed Abutbul from Haifa as he drove south toward Tel Aviv. Investigators also believe that someone involved in the hit was waiting for Abutbul at the gas station. There are nine security cameras at the gas station. All of them have been taken by the International Criminal Investigations Unit. Police also recovered a cigarette butt that is believed to have been left by one of the hit men. Investigators hope that they can retrieve a DNA sample, thus narrowing down the list of suspects. One of Netanyas most notorious gangsters pondered the manner in which the murder took place. This was a violation of the rules that govern organized crime, he said. At first glance, it seems that the murder appeared to be a Little Red Riding Hood scenario, a term that gangsters use to refer to a trap that is set with the help of a collaborator who lures the victim to an area where he is then killed. Some might say that the bodyguard is the guy who collaborated with the murderers; that way things would fall into place and make sense, the gangster said. But it seems as if there was some help from inside in addition to the work that was carried out by the professionals. There is no way that a criminal on the level of Abutbul would stand at the pump and fill up gas in his car. There is no way that he would stop at a gas station. Besides, Francois never drove the car himself. His bodyguards did. Yet Francois was found shot dead while seated behind the wheel. There are too many holes in this story. This sounds like something that was planned to the very last detail. The fall of the Abutbuls The Abutbul family was once one of the most notorious criminal enterprises in the entire country, but its downward trajectory began with the murder of family boss Felix Abutbul, gunned down nine years ago outside a Prague casino which he owned. The Abutbul family is broken, crushed and divided, said a Netanya-based criminal. But in the past, when Felix ran things, they were a strong family who ruled over Netanya and they were given a lot of respect. After the death of the father, the sons started messing about, he said. That was when the arrests started, and the killings, and the war that the Netanya police waged against the crime families in the city. They started winding up in jail and the family got weaker. Other elements entered the picture and tried to take over the city and impose a new order with the Abutbuls out of sight. Francois Abutbul was married with two teenaged children. He had just completed a prison sentence at the Ayalon detention facility for assaulting his wife. During his incarceration, he shared a prison cell with his brother, Assi. Both of them were kept in a separate area away from the general population of inmates. He was no stranger to prison. In 2001, he began a five-year stint after he was convicted of a range of crimes, including assault and extortion. Police managed to slip a mole into his organization and obtain incriminating evidence that ensured a conviction. His brother, Assi Abutbul, is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence for heading a criminal organization as well as extortion, threats of violence, and money laundering. Upon Assi Abutbuls arrest, authorities also confiscated property that was valued to be worth more than NIS 7 million ($2.4 million). Upon his release from prison, Francois Abutbul feared that he would be the target of a revenge attack by Rico Shirazis criminal organization. Abutbul sought a truce, declaring that he wanted to prevent unnecessary wars motivated by power feuds and the lust for control. While he was serving his sentence, he even went so far as to request that the courts allow him to grant media interviews in which he would renounce his life of crime. The judge refused the request, stating his belief that Abutbuls request in and of itself granted him the media attention he sought. Abutbul was often quoted as saying that he wished to rehabilitate his businesses. During his incarceration, three branches of the Bat Haikar restaurant chain which he owns were torched and attacked with stun grenades. In addition, the police ordered his business closed, causing him to incur significant financial losses. Tensions between the crime families continued to heat up. Four months ago, Francois Abutbul and a number of his soldiers were arrested following a brawl that involved members of the Shirazi organization not far from an Abutbul-owned business establishment. In February, Abutbul forged a truce with the Karage family. Last month, a truce summit was held between Abutbul and Shirazi at the home of Rabbi Shmuel Elkarif in Givat Shmuel. After the truce, Abutbul said: Me and Rico -- like family. His mother, Esther, made reference to the truce while standing above the body of her dead son just as he was about to be laid to rest. Those who sought out my son also made sure to organize a truce and made sure to lead him to his death, she said. Since the truce was forged, he began to live life and go out into the street like a normal person, a close associate of Abutbuls said. Still, Abutbul was summoned to a police station in Lod where investigators told him they had information indicating he was in the crosshairs and that his life was in danger. He was encouraged by authorities to leave Netanya. But he told close friends that he was calm. He believed that police were trying to sabotage the truce that he forged with Shirazi. Two weeks later, eight bullets pierced his body. Who has faith in truces-
Word of Francois Abutbuls death had already made the rounds in Netanya on Sunday morning. What killed Francois was complacency and overconfidence, a local coffee shop patron said. Who puts their faith in a truce-
One notorious mobster in the city said that since his release from prison, Abutbul no longer traveled around with a massive security detail as he had done in the past. There was a time when Francois would go around with eight or nine bodyguards surrounding him at every moment, the man said. Yet after he left prison, since he no longer had money, he was left with just one bodyguard. If he had the means to do so, theres no doubt he would have kept more bodyguards around. In our world, its a matter of life and death. I dont know what he was thinking. I believe that he thought it wouldnt happen to him. Otherwise, it would be suicide.
He knew the rules and the risks just like all of us do. He knew how easy it was for gunmen to get to him at gas stations. Everyone involved in this business knows this. Think about it. A motorcyclist who pulls up alongside a car at a gas station does not usually arouse suspicion.
The last time I spoke with him was on Friday, just before the onset of the Sabbath, said Yogev Halfon, an attorney and close friend of Abutbul. He sounded fine. Recently, he felt very confident, especially after the truce. He felt most at ease and at peace. He didnt have the same worries and concerns on his mind as in the first two to three months after his release from prison. He felt like a free man, just like all of us. He started frequenting the places he loved to go to, the restaurants and cafes that he enjoyed. From his standpoint, having just one bodyguard was not the product of the truce. He never dreamed of the possibility that anyone would want to cause him harm now. This was certainly a surprise to all of us. It is really hard to believe.
In Netanya, however, one could find people who were not nearly as surprised by the murder. This was to be expected, a close associate of the Abutbul family said. All of us told him that the safest place for him to be was in prison. Even after the truce between him and Shirazi was forged, it was obvious that a hit was imminent. Right now, there is no trust between the two sides, and the calm is purely an artificial one. There is no chance of trust, especially when one considers that Francois made a lot of enemies in his life. Anyone would be a good candidate to be his killer.
Wars of succession
Police are now speculating who will try to fill Abutbuls shoes as the top organized crime figure in Netanya. This might sound weird, but there are times when I do miss Felix, a senior police investigator said. Today the concept of the Abutbul crime family no longer exists. They were dealt a very serious blow. The father was the force uniting the entire family.
The father and the two sons, both of whom were investigated in my time, are worlds apart .. The father worked from a sense of respect. He knew where the boundaries were, he knew the role that the police fulfilled and the role that the criminal fulfilled. He knew how to respect the rules of the game. The sons did not continue his legacy. Furthermore, it was they who caused his murder as well as the strife in the criminal underworld.
In my opinion, the murder will actually calm the war between the crime families because a competitor was eliminated and people can gain control of territory, he said. Crime in the streets will remain at the same level. It wont get worse. Obviously there will be a fight for succession between the soldiers within the organization, but they wont recover. Groups like those belonging to Shirazi and Karage will grow even stronger ... This means that we anticipate a lot of work ahead of us.
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