Natan Peretz: Jewish Drug-Smuggler
One of the current cause celebres in the ultra-Orthodox jew world is Natan Peretz; who is an ultra-Orthodox jew who is currently in prison in Moldova after being caught trying to smuggle drugs into Moldova earlier this year.
Arutz Sheva (Israeli Channel 7) writes how:
‘After 5 months of no contact with the outside world, Natan Peretz, a Jewish man imprisoned in Moldova released a 1-minute message to the public. In the frightening message where Natan struggles to hold back his tears, he shared that those around him made 3 attempts to kill him.
He introduces himself as his prayer name, asking listeners to pray for his well-being and safe return. “Merciful Jews! I am Natan Peretz ben Tamar I have been in prison in Moldova for the past 5 months, enduring bitter suffering.” Natan's family says he is an innocent man duped into taking a parcel on his flight. When he arrived in Moldova, drugs were discovered inside, and he was arrested at the airport and imprisoned without a fair trial.
Describing the character of the inmates, his voice breaks, “They have tried to kill me 3 times already.” Although he narrowly escaped these encounters with death, he and his family know that nothing is stopping them from trying again. When Natan last saw his wife and 3-year-old last, he was a free man, on his way to pray by Kivrei Tzadikim, (Graves of Rabbis). At this point, he may never return to his family's embrace again.
He describes his living conditions, and at this point, it is clear that he is crying, “I have lost weight, I barely ate. I am malnourished, I lost 28 kg (60 lbs).” Natan has no access to kosher food in prison, besides the packages of food kindhearted Moldovan Jews have brought him. He is wasting away to the point of emaciation.
2 weeks ago, the court announced that for a price of $120,000, Natan can go free. Tragically, his family has no feasible way to pay that amount, as they come from simple backgrounds. They have one hope: a crowdfunding page set up by friends. If the goal is not reached, Natan may live out the rest of his years in a Moldovan Jail.
Facing almost certain death in prison, he turns to the only people he can rely on - the Jewish public.’ (1)
Aside from the shrieking about how the (non-jewish) Moldovans don’t appreciate a jew trying to import drugs into their country and are treating him to a bit of rough justice while he is in prison. Peretz claims it was all an ‘innocent misunderstanding’ and that while he had drugs on him; it was because he had been ‘duped’.
To be more specific elsewhere we learn that in Amsterdam Peretz ‘ran into an old acquaintance who offered him work transporting a bag of what he says the friend claimed was dog food across the border to Moldova.’ (2)
So basically, Peretz claims he was a ‘naïve sheltered youth’ – who was apparently in Amsterdam alone for some unspecified reason – that magically ‘met an old acquaintance’ who ‘gave him a bag of dog food to take with him to Moldova’ and he was ‘shocked and scared’ when police promptly discovered it was drugs.
I mean what kind of idiot thinks someone giving him ‘dog food’ at an airport to take another country is actually ‘dog food’ and why would the ‘old acquaintance’ have sought him out at Amsterdam’s airport (presumably meaning Schiphol) to ‘offer him work’ if the ‘old acquaintance’ wasn’t going to Moldova himself but magically knew Peretz was?
No this sounds awfully like Peretz was an arrogant jew trying to smuggle drugs into Moldova and ended up getting caught and is now trying desperately to get his fellow members of the tribe to intervene and free him before his fellow prisoners turn him into a proverbial lampshade.
Let him rot.
References
(1) https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/391063
(2) https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/389622