Ex-Bodybuilding Champ Aided Cali Drug Cartel, Israeli Police Say

Israeli police say they have arrested the Israeli supervisor of Cali drug cartel deliveries to all of North America and Europe.

Roni Mann, a 50-year-old former Israeli body-building champion, has been the key organizer of deliveries for the world’s largest drug-trafficking operation since 1980, police Col. Dudi Cohen said Wednesday.

Police allege Mann orchestrated shipments of hundreds of tons of marijuana, hashish and cocaine for the Colombia-based cartel. He also laundered money for the cartel with the help of Israelis who immigrated from the former Soviet Union, police spokesman Gadi Doron said.

Mann - who lives abroad, mostly in the United States - was arrested recently at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, Doron said. Police did not say when the arrest occurred.

Mann will appear in court today, Doron said. Authorities did not specify the charges.

Mann had such standing in the international drug trade that he was asked to arbitrate between the cartel and Dutch drug dealers last year when a 15-ton shipment of marijuana went astray, Doron said.

Dutch police learned Mann was the arbitrator and informed their Israeli colleagues - providing them with their first inkling of his activity, Cohen said.