How cryptocurrency is transforming organized crime in Israel, and the police fight against it

At around 4 a.m., two young men riding an electric scooter approached a branch of Japanika, a popular Asian restaurant chain, in the central Israeli city of Givatayim. According to an indictment, the two suspects, both around 18 and wearing masks, were carrying bottles containing roughly 4.5 liters of flammable liquid. They allegedly set fire to the restaurant and fled as the flames spread. An employee was inside at the time but was not injured. The branch suffered heavy damage.

The full extent of the violence may not yet be clear, but the key question is what triggered it. In court, police Superintendent Rafael Amon presented classified material and said the attacks on Japanika branches were carried out against the backdrop of “a very large, violent dispute lasting more than a month between two of Israel’s most powerful organized crime groups, the Mosli and Jarushi organizations.”