The number of Israeli soldiers indicted for drug offenses rose by 50 percent in 2014 an internal annual army report.

The number of Israeli soldiers indicted for drug offenses rose by 50 percent in 2014 an internal annual army report.

The report which was published Sunday by the occupation military defense attorneys’ corps, related the indictments to drug use, drug trafficking and refusal to undergo a drug test, according to the Israeli daily, Haaretz.

In 2014, the report said, the army filed 629 indictments related to drug offenses, up from 416 in 2013 – an increase of about 50 percent. Most of the indictments related to either marijuana or the drug substitutes colloquially known in the Zionist entity as “kiosk drugs.”

Drug investigations comprise the lion’s share of the probes opened by the military police, the report said, adding that last year, they accounted for 66 percent of all investigations that ended with indictments being filed in military courts.

The figures have been revealed following another report published in June by Haaretz, which said the Israeli military had recruited thousands of soldiers with criminal records, enabling them to request that their records be expunged.

The crimes committed by the newly-recruited soldiers ranged from drug offenses and theft to more serious crimes, including sex offenses, according to the report.

The report further said that the army provides a soldier with a criminal record with the opportunity to file a request for an official recommendation to the president that his record be expunged. Such requests are usually agreed to.