If Israeli mob boss Shalom Domrani could have known what the near future would hold for him in Israel, he might have stayed in Morocco, his on-and-off home for the past two years.

Last month, Nov. 9, not long after returning from Morocco, he was arrested at his fortified compound in southern Israel. The arrest, announced live on TV by Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, was for extortion charges linked to the municipal elections in the town of Netivot. Indicted and behind bars, it may be a long time before he sees Marrakech or Casablanca again.

Lacking an extradition treaty with Israel, Morocco has in recent years become an unlikely sanctuary for Israeli mobsters like Domrani. Looking to make money or avoid police investigators, they've spent months — even years — in the Arab kingdom.

The list of expats reads like a who's who of the Israeli underworld: Meir Abergil, one of the brothers who headed the Abergil crime family, Avi Ruhan, a former Abergil associate who runs his own organization, and members of the Jawrushi clan, an Arab-Israeli crime family from Ramle, and their rivals from the Karaja clan.