Israeli police, tax officials and National Insurance investigators raided a villa in Ashkelon on Thursday that authorities suspect had been turned into a busy event venue operating without a business license, and shut it down, police said Sunday.
The raid followed repeated complaints from neighbors, who reported constant noise and serious disruption to their daily lives.
Armed with court warrants, officers searched the villa and the owners’ homes. They seized more than NIS 120,000 in cash, thousands of dollar and euro bills and coins, a Rolex watch, professional sound and event equipment including speaker systems, and dozens of checks estimated to be worth tens to hundreds of thousands of shekels.
The operation was led by the Ashkelon police station, working with the Southern District Attorney’s Office. Officials from the Israel Tax Authority’s income tax and VAT divisions, National Insurance investigators and the Israel Land Enforcement Authority joined, each working under its own authority. Police seized the cash and equipment. Tax and National Insurance officials collected documents and account books to assess how much income may have gone unreported. Land enforcement staff examined whether the building and land were being used legally.
According to the report, an unlicensed venue in a residential area raises concerns beyond noise, including safety risks to guests, building violations and suspected large-scale tax evasion.
Police call the approach “combined economic enforcement.” Ordinary administrative fines do little to deter operators when events can bring in hundreds of thousands of shekels, so the idea is to hit their finances directly. The evidence has been handed to the relevant agencies, which are building a case ahead of legal and financial proceedings.
Police said the raid is part of a broader policy and that such operations will continue.
