Crime boss allegedly ran an extortion and laundering network from prison
Yossi, also known as Asaf, Buskila, a 30-year-old from Migdal HaEmek, is described by police as a northern crime figure who rose quietly, built an armed gang, and now allegedly continued directing criminal activity from prison. He is serving an eight-year sentence for a plea deal in a foiled assassination case, but investigators say he used a prison pay phone at Shaata Prison to keep contact with his people and issue instructions.
According to the report, Buskila was once linked to Ziv Alush’s smaller crime group, which had ties to underworld figures Shmulik Harush and Michael Mor. In recent years, he split from Alush and formed an independent gang that recruited dozens of young men from Migdal HaEmek and the surrounding area. A northern criminal source said he had worked quietly for years, learned a great deal from Alush, and became someone even veteran criminals preferred not to confront.
Buskila is also said to have extensive knowledge of making explosive devices triggered by mobile phones. About five and a half years ago, he was arrested with Ronen Shbiv and Dan Mor Yosef on suspicion of involvement in two attempted killings, one in Yokneam and another in Beit Shemesh. In one case, a half-kilogram bomb was placed under a football player’s car in Beit Shemesh and was meant to be detonated by cellphone. In another, a bomb hidden under the driver’s seat of a car in Yokneam exploded the next morning, severely wounding a former criminal, who lost one leg and underwent surgery that saved his life.
After the indictment was filed at the Nazareth District Court in Nof HaGalil, Buskila’s lawyers, Doron Noy, Tzion Shimon and Yehali Shperling, pointed to serious evidentiary problems. The murder charges were eventually dropped in a plea deal, he received eight years in prison including suspended sentences, and was ordered to pay the victim’s family 258,000 shekels. A police source said he “was very lucky not to be convicted of attempted murder” and noted that “the prison did not stop him.”
Police now suspect that from prison he built a criminal network dealing in gambling, loans on the gray market, non-bank credit, extortion, cryptocurrency trading and money laundering. The investigation, led by the National Unit for Economic Crime in Lahav 433, also involved the Tax Authority, the Israel Prison Service’s central investigative unit and the Migdal HaEmek police station. This week the probe went public, Buskila was arrested in his cell, and raids allegedly uncovered luxury cars, cash and real estate tied to gang members and associates.
