*Joint announcement of the Shin Bet spokesman and the police spokesman:*
*The Shin Bet and Lahav 433 unit thwarted another Iranian attempt to carry out an assassination attack - two Israeli citizens, residents of Ramat Gan, were arrested*
It is permitted to be published that as part of a combined countermeasures activity of the General Security Service and the Lahav 433 unit of the Israel Police, an infrastructure of Iranian intelligence agencies was exposed, which works to recruit and activate citizens in Israel. In this context, Vladislav Victorson, about 30 years old, a resident of Ramat Gan, was arrested for questioning.
The investigation by the Shin Bet and the police revealed that starting last August, Vladislav was in contact on social networks with an individual named "Mari Hossi". The contact was in the Hebrew language.
As part of the aforementioned relationship, Vladislav, under the guidance of the Iranian entity and while being aware of his identity as such, carried out various tasks including spraying graffiti, hanging banners, burying money and even burning vehicles in the Yarkon Park area in Tel Aviv. Later, Vladislav was asked to sabotage communication infrastructures and ATMs and set fire to forests. Some of the tasks described were documented and over $5,000 was paid for their performance. According to the findings of the investigation, *Vladislav even agreed to carry out a mission to eliminate a person in Israel and to throw a grenade at a house and subsequently, worked to obtain weapons, including sniper rifles, pistols and grenades.*
In order to carry out his tasks, Vladislav recruited two other citizens, including his partner, Anna Bernstein, about 18 years old, a resident of Ramat Gan, who took part in the execution of some of the tasks. Vladislav was even asked to locate street dwellers in order to recruit them to carry out additional tasks and to photograph demonstrators during protests.
Today indictments were filed against those involved for security offenses.
An appeal by the Iranian intelligence agencies, through social networks, is recognized as a platform for the random recruitment of Israelis to carry out various tasks. Although these missions may initially be seen as innocent, they have the potential to cause a real harm to the security of the state. The appeal was made in different languages, including English and Hebrew, through social platforms (Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter) and the citizens responded to it in order to make a financial profit.
It should be noted that a significant portion of the Israeli citizens who received suspicious inquiries, did not respond to them and even alerted the relevant authorities about them.
*Senior Shin Bet official:* As part of the activities of the Shin Bet and the police, in recent months a number of infrastructures of Iranian intelligence agencies were exposed that worked to recruit Israeli citizens, in order to carry out various tasks that culminated in harming individuals in Israel. Many fictitious Iranian profiles were located and monitored on the networks and information was collected about the factors behind their activation. The exposure of the activity led to the arrest and interrogation of Israeli citizens who were tempted to carry out missions. This investigation reveals, once again, the efforts of the Iranian intelligence agencies to recruit and exploit Israeli citizens in order to promote espionage and terrorist activity in Israel.
The security agencies of the State of Israel, including the Shin Bet and the Israel Police, will continue to work in cooperation to detect Iranian activity and will work to bring to justice severely all those involved in such activity.