Tel Aviv, Jan. 1 -- A network of arms dealers that supplied weapons to residents of the Bedouin towns Rahat and Segev Shalom in the Negev was exposed and thwarted, said the Israel Police, and 14 suspects were arrested and weapons were seized.

The arrests came after, over the past year the police conducted what it called a "covert, complex and prolonged" investigation against a broad infrastructure for trafficking in illegal weapons. The investigation led to the exposure of a network of arms dealers that operated systematically throughout the sector, transferring weapons from the Judea and Samaria sector to the Southern District, where they were used by criminal elements in the Bedouin diaspora for violent conflicts and serious criminal a...