The Worst Mistake of My Life

His name is Yechiel David Sin-Shalom. He’s a regular 19-year-old yeshivah bochur from Modiin Illit, studying at a yeshivah in Jerusalem. Except that on Rosh Chodesh Adar I, he landed on the tarmac of Ben Gurion airport after spending a month in a Belgian prison. It wasn’t easy to face the cameras with his story instead of hiding behind some anonymous persona, but to him, it’s more important to share what he went through than to protect his dignity, more urgent to spare others the shame and suffering than remain in the shadows. 

“It all began when I noticed how a friend from yeshivah always seemed to have lots of cash on hand,” Yechiel relates. “I asked him where he had the money from. At first, he was evasive, but then he reconsidered and told me that way back, a friend of his had tempted him to fly abroad with a suitcase full of khat. The handlers were paying 3,000 shekels [about $930] per run. He’d already been doing it for three years and was never caught.”

While khat, a green leafy stimulant plant that’s a staple of Middle-Eastern recreational culture, is illegal in most European countries, there are no restrictions on its sale or distribution in Israel, creating a lucrative opportunity for traffickers to take advantage of young people willing to smuggle it into Europe for a free ticket and a wad of spending money. While the penalty for smuggling can be as severe as seven years in prison, most of these young smugglers — some as young as 14 — are told by their handlers that in the worst-case scenario, their suitcases will be confiscated. (And because it’s a legal substance in Israel, handlers are legally off the hook.)

“I asked my friend if it was dangerous,” Yechiel says, “and he told me that Daniel, his handler, assured him that the risk was very small, and that anyway, detainees are released right away.