It has been cleared for publication that two employees of the French Consulate in Jerusalem, a driver and his security guard, were arrested by Israel’s Security Agency, the Shin Ben, for allegedly smuggling weapons from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. The Shin Bet released a statement in which it revealed that the French Consulate worker, Romain Franck, used his diplomat-licensed vehicle to smuggle more than 70 pistols and assault rifles from the Hamas-run territory to the West Bank, where he delivered the weapons to a Palestinian who sold them to arms dealers. Meanwhile, a senior Shin Bet officer labeled the incident as “very grave…” “in which the immunity and privileges granted to foreign missions in Israel was cynically exploited in order to smuggle dozens of weapons which could have been used in terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and members of the security forces.” That said, the Shin Bet statement emphasized that its “investigation clearly shows that Franck acted for financial gain, of his own accord and unbeknownst to his superiors.” The French consulate was not immediately available for TV7’s request for comment.