Israeli security forces seized several weapons and a large amount of ammunition during a Border Police raid on Friday morning in Yarka, a Druze village in Israel's North.
During the raid, police officers entered a residential building and found a weapons cache containing a Carlo submachine gun and cartridges for it, M16 cartridges, cartridges for Israeli Jericho pistols and Kalashnikovs, the shoulder stock and handle of a long gun, a gas grenade, and lots of rifle and pistol ammunition.
The suspect, a 22-year-old resident of Kfar Yarka, was arrested and taken to the local police station for questioning, after which he was detained.
The raid was part of a larger initiative by Israel Police to clamp down on crime among the Arab-Israeli population.
All the weapons and ammunition were also taken to the police station for further inspection and evidence collection. Police are expected to petition the court for an extension of the suspect's detention following a preliminary investigation.
Police arrest two illegal residents, discover they are repeat offenders
Police on June 17 arrested two men in Nazareth who they suspected were in the country illegally, according to a Friday police statement.
During routine activity in Nazareth, police identified a suspicious vehicle whose license plate number did not appear in their database, and pulled it over. The driver, a 27-year-old man, told officers he was a Jerusalem resident and that the passenger, a 21-year-old man, was his brother. It turned out that both men were residents of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank - not Israeli citizens - who had entered the country illegally.
What is more, the driver did not possess a valid driver's license.
After the two men were arrested and taken to the station for further questioning, police found that the vehicle, originally suspected of being stolen, had been legally purchased but had forged license plates. They also found that the two men had a history of entering Israel illegally and traveling with fake license plates under false identities.
After completing the criminal investigation, police filed an indictment against the suspects for counts of illegal entry and residence in Israel, impersonation, obstruction of justice, use of fake license plates, driving without a driver's license and driving without a vehicle license.
Man sets car on fire after deadly hit-and-run, reports vehicle stolen
On Thursday, after several weeks of investigations, police filed an indictment and a request to detain a 40-year-old Umm el-Fahm resident on counts of reckless driving after an accident, manslaughter, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice, providing false information, reckless and negligent acts, and speeding.
The suspect was involved in a car accident on June 12 in which an off-duty IDF reserve soldier was killed on Highway 6 in northern Israel.
Early that morning, police and emergency medical teams responded to two calls within minutes of each other. The first reported a critically injured motorcyclist found about 200 meters away from a vehicle on fire. The second call came from the owner of the burning car, reporting that the vehicle had been stolen.
Medical teams determined that the motorcyclist, an IDF reservist, had been killed in the accident. He was on his way home after a period of active duty in the North.
During initial investigations, witnesses told police that they saw a person setting fire to the car involved in the accident, and suspicions arose that the owner was the culprit and that his report of vehicle theft was a lie. Based on this, police arrested the Umm el-Fahm resident.
Upon further investigation, police were able to link the owner to the accident and to offenses of reckless driving, collecting evidence indicating that he was traveling at about 130 kph (80 mph) at the time of the accident. This data led to Thursday's indictment and request for detention.