By Rajan Narayan
THE Israeli drug don Yaniv Benaim, alias Atala, seems to be back in Goa, or maybe he never left Goa. Atala was first arrested in 2010 in a major drug scam involving the then home minister, Ravi Naik and his son Roy Naik. Atala’s Swedish girlfriend Lucky Farmhouse released a video of the Goa narcotic police selling drugs they had seized to Atala. There were also images of Roy Naik, the son of Ravi Naik, acting as the agent of the police selling a huge quantity of drugs to Atala. The video showed Roy Naik with Atala.
In theory, the police are supposed to burn all the drugs they have seized, keeping only a small quantity as evidence. As it turned out the police did not burn or destroy the drugs but sold them right back to drug peddlers like Atala, an Israeli citizen. Atala was and is to this day considered the doyen of the Israeli drug mafia in Goa.
In 2010, the drug trade in Goa was divided between the Russian and Israeli mafia. The Russian mafia had taken over parts of north Goa like Morjim and Arambol, where the bulk of the Russian charter tourism boomed. At the peak of the Russian charter tourist arrivals in Goa, many of the road signs and even the names of the restaurants in the Morjim belt were in Russian. Even restaurant menus were in Russian. The Israelis, on their part, had taken over the southern beaches in Canacona. The Israeli drug mafia caters to young Israeli youth taking a break in Goa after serving their two years of compulsory service in the Israeli army. There were bitter and violent wars between the Israel and the Russian drug mafia.
ATTRACTIVE ATALA
ATALA, a tall and very tough-looking looking guy, had a Swedish girlfriend called Lucky Farmhouse. The Swedish model was upset as Atala was apparently not faithful to her. In a fit of anger, she made a video film of Roy Naik allegedly selling the drugs in the custody of the Goa police to Atala. There are even rumors that the whole operation was planned by the rival Russian mafia. The police were forced to act, but before they could do so Atala vanished and probably back in Israel. Or Peru, from where after a long legal battle, he was extradited and brought back to stand trial in the drug trafficking case in Goa.
The case were handed over to CBI after the high court of Bombay at Goa disposed of the NSUI chief Sunil Kawathankar’s petition seeking the same. The CBI, which was investigating the police-politicians-drug mafia case, dropped charges of any involvement in the drug trade against Atala in December 2015. Atala claimed on camera that he was paying the ANC chief, who regularly sold him drugs seized from raids and even drugs deposited with the magistrate. The video was uploaded on social networking site on April 2008.
In April 2019, Anjuna police booked Atala along with two others for assaulting a Russian but did not verify at the time whether he had a valid visa. Later, he was arrested by Uttarakhand police for overstaying.
Atala, who was cleared of the charges against him by the CBI, appears to have come back to Goa and resumed his drug business. Recently, on April 6, Atala was caught in possession of over Rs8.7 lakh worth of drugs. Atala has been remanded to police custody. The superintendent of police, Tikam Singh, has revealed that though Atala has an Israeli passport, he has been issued an Aadhar card showing his permanent residence at a villa in Siolim. It was from a rented residence at Siolim from where the latest cache of cocaine was seized.
CLEARLY, Atala has very good legal advisors as well as strong political contacts, and might escape yet again. Compared to older charges the present charges are relatively minor and may not attract severe punishment.