Police: Fence along Sinai border vital
Few people welcomed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's announcement to construct a fence on the border with Egypt more than Southern District Police chief Cmdr. Yohanan Danino, who knows firsthand the consequences of having a de facto open frontier with Sinai.
Cmdr. Yohanan Danino - today the head of thepolice's Southern District.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski [file]
SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World
The Southern Police District shares 255 km. of border with Egypt, in addition to the 85 km. of the eastern border with Jordan, and has formed an elite unit called Magen ("shield') to disrupt the predominantly Beduin-run smuggling networks responsible for bringing in terrorists, prostitutes, illegal foreign workers and drugs.
"We are very supportive of any type of fence," Danino told The Jerusalem Post. "The more sophisticated it is, the better. You never know who might try to come across the border. Some of the networks overlap. Some of the smugglers who traffic people also smuggle in terrorists.
"This fence is vital on many levels for thepolice. It will be aimed at those who bring in arms to the country and drugs," he said.
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Some observers have expressed concern that the smugglers who make such a good living from the trafficking trade will turn to other crimes within Israel once the fence is erected.
Danino said he was familiar with the concern.
We will have to wait and see whether it materializes," he said. "The minute you shut down smuggling networks in the Negev, new smugglers could appear who find alternative routes.
"The Negev also acts as an intercontinental transfer point for illegal trafficking via Jordan and Egypt. The minute the western border [with Egypt] is hermetically sealed, Israel ceases to be an international transfer point," Danino said.
"We know the threat terrorism poses regarding the breached border. We know Hamas and other organizations from the Gaza Strip have sent attackers to Israel via Sinai to carry out attacks.
"Clearly this open border was one of the best routes open to them," the policecommander said. "A quick look at recent raids verifies this.
"The biggest problem with the border is its length, which made it very hard to secure effectively, for both the army and the police," Danino said.
Even after the fence is built, the Magen anti-smuggling unit will have plenty to do, thepolice commander said.
"Most of its recent seizures have taken place near the Jordanian side of the borders. The unit will have its work cut out for it in the future," he said.
Netanyahu said the fence will cost NIS 1.5 billion to construct. The first sections will be built near Gaza to the north and near Eilat to the south.
The fence will be equipped with electronic sensors that will alert security forces to the presence of people approaching it and to attempts to breach the border.
Cannabis is one of the main drugs brought in from Egypt, while the majority of heroin that enters Israel comes from Jordan. Cocaine is usually smuggled in from South America through Ben-Gurion Airport.
Smugglers earn tens of millions of shekels, and one successful run can assure their finances for years.
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