Suspected illegal Israel arms sale to Asian country investigated

The Shin Bet and police are interrogating 20 Israelis, including former defense industry employees, on suspicion of “illegally developing, manufacturing, and testing Israeli loitering missiles” for unlicensed sale an unnamed country in Asia, the Shin Bet disclosed on Thursday. The country is described only as “adversarial to the US.” Its identity like many other details of the case are held under a cloak of secrecy. The Shin Bet said there was genuine concern that the missiles would fall into the hands of an enemy state. Authorities have seized NIS 3 million (under $1 million) from the bank account of the most senior suspect – a fraction, they believe, of the huge amounts the suspects could have netted from the transactions. It is unclear if the group had gone as far as providing the buyer with a fully developed product. The suspects were reported to have conducted tests in a residential area of the country.  The first hearings in the case are set to take place soon.