The Millionaire Who Lost It All And Became the Police’s Secret Weapon
A once-rich entrepreneur known as “El Chapo” went from millionaire high roller to a desperate evacuee and finally to one of the police’s most valuable undercover assets, read more details.
The Fall: From High Roller to Desperate Evacuee
An Israeli businessman, who went bankrupt and is known as “El Chapo,” has come out to be the key informant in the massive police operation that dismantled the crime networks operating in Tel Aviv’s evacuee hotels, leading to 20 indictments and multiple seizures of weapons.
The man, once worth 30 million shekels, lost his fortune through gambling addiction on obscure sports including Romanian women’s soccer, as well as risky bets on foreign online casinos. Mounting debts drove him into small-time drug dealing before he fled Northern Israel to escape loan sharks. The October 7 war forced his return to Tel Aviv, where he was placed among the same criminal networks he had tried to avoid. It was a chance encounter with Staff Sgt. A. that resulted in his recruitment as an undercover operative, driven by survival and revenge.
High-Stakes Infiltration
El Chapo used his credibly authentic hustle reputation to win the confidence of crime families that preyed on the evacuees in Tel Aviv hotels. What began as routine purchases of drugs escalated when the suspects unexpectedly offered him smuggled Jordanian pistols.The sting operation almost collapsed in the “Red Cap” incident, where police lost contact with their informant for a short time during a deal and were afraid he had been ambushed or compromised.
The months-long investigation ultimately resulted in the seizure of several weapons and 20 criminal indictments. In exchange for his cooperation, El Chapo received a clean slate from authorities.The case shows how crime networks took advantage of wartime chaos and evacuations, and how an unlikely informant helped authorities take down those operations from within.
