Israel To Extradite Ecstasy Ring Suspects To U.S.
Move Is First Ever Criminal Extradition Of Israeli Citizens
POSTED: 6:38 p.m. EDT July 25, 2002
UPDATED: 8:50 a.m. EDT July 30, 2002
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- On the South Florida party scene, Ecstasy is the drug of choice. In fact, South Florida has more Ecstasy pills in circulation than anyplace in the country.
Some of the most prolific smugglers are Israeli gangsters.
After a massive DEA investigation, Meir Ben David and Josef Levi will be the first Israelis sent to the Ft. Lauderdale to face a drug trial, said Thomas W. Raffanello, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Miami office.
Ben David and Levi were expected to make an initial court appearance Monday in Miami. It could not immediately be determined if they had attorneys.
The two Israelis were charged in October 2000 with conspiracy to import Ecstasy and possession with intent to distribute Ecstasy, Raffanello said in a statement.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida charges in an indictment handed down recently that between April 1, 1998, and April 30, 1999, in Miami-Dade County and elsewhere, Ben David, Levi and 4 others conspired to distribute Ecstasy in the United States.
The Drug Enforcement Administration says the men are not only leading drug smugglers, they are also members of an Israeli organized crime syndicate.
"This is really a significant event in the drug prosecutions in this district and nationwide," said former federal prosecutor Myles Malman.
"It is the first time any Israeli has been extradited to the southern District of Florida for anything," Malman said.
Levi and Ben David have been South Florida residents off and on for years.
The indictment says Ben David owned a $1.8 million home on Northeast 22nd Street in Fort Lauderdale. Levi lived in Aventura.
In 1993, Ben David received probation after being charged by Broward police with trafficking in cocaine. The DEA believes he and Levi are major Israeli mobsters.
Ruben Oliva, Ben David's Miami attorney, disagrees. Asked if his client is a major organized crime figure, his response was, "I don't believe so."
And asked where Ben David stands in the hierarchy of people who are allegedly smuggling Ecstasy and other drugs into South Florida, Oliva said: "I'm not sure he has done anything. Mr. Ben David is accused of participating in a conspiracy to distribute ecstasy in the South Florida area."
According to federal authorities, Israelis control 75 percent of the American Ecstasy market from Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Israeli dealers have even supplied Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, the former Mafia enforcer and Ecstasy dealer.
DEA officials say the Israeli drug rings have often used Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn to smuggle the drugs. Several Hasidim have been caught with the contraband and arrested by New York police, including 72-year-old Machloof Ben-Chitritt, an Israeli-American who was used to smuggle 61,000 Ecstasy tablets. He was caught at Miami International Airport last year.
About $400,000 in cash and 200,000 Ecstasy tablets were seized during the investigation, the DEA said. Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, is a synthetic stimulant and hallucinogenic that became popular during the 1990s at all-night dance parties called raves.
Couriers carry tens of thousands of pills from Amsterdam to New York and then on to South Florida, where they are smuggled through the international airports, authorities say.
Then, tens of millions in Ecstasy profits are shipped back to Holland from the United States using the same smuggling techniques, according to officials.
In the past few years, several Israelis in South Florida, Los Angeles and New York have been indicted for conspiring to distribute Ecstasy.
"Miami has been since the early 1980s (and) perhaps the late 1970s, a focus for Israeli organized crime," said Israeli crime expert and Fordham University law professor Abraham Abramovsky.
"It is easier for an Israeli criminal to melt within a population where Israelis already reside," Abramovsky said. "That's the case in Miami."
U.S. marhsals are currently in Israel picking up the two men. They are expected back in South Florida within the next few days. And the Israeli prosecutor in Jerusalem says he has received numerous requests for extraditions of other Israelis wanted by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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After a massive DEA investigation, Meir Ben David and Josef Levi will be the first Israelis sent to the Ft. Lauderdale to face a drug trial, said Thomas W. Raffanello, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Miami office.
Ben David and Levi were expected to make an initial court appearance Monday in Miami. It could not immediately be determined if they had attorneys.
The two Israelis were charged in October 2000 with conspiracy to import Ecstasy and possession with intent to distribute Ecstasy, Raffanello said in a statement.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida charges in an indictment handed down recently that between April 1, 1998, and April 30, 1999, in Miami-Dade County and elsewhere, Ben David, Levi and 4 others conspired to distribute Ecstasy in the United States.
The Drug Enforcement Administration says the men are not only leading drug smugglers, they are also members of an Israeli organized crime syndicate.
"This is really a significant event in the drug prosecutions in this district and nationwide," said former federal prosecutor Myles Malman.
"It is the first time any Israeli has been extradited to the southern District of Florida for anything," Malman said.
Levi and Ben David have been South Florida residents off and on for years.
The indictment says Ben David owned a $1.8 million home on Northeast 22nd Street in Fort Lauderdale. Levi lived in Aventura.
In 1993, Ben David received probation after being charged by Broward police with trafficking in cocaine. The DEA believes he and Levi are major Israeli mobsters.
Ruben Oliva, Ben David's Miami attorney, disagrees. Asked if his client is a major organized crime figure, his response was, "I don't believe so."
And asked where Ben David stands in the hierarchy of people who are allegedly smuggling Ecstasy and other drugs into South Florida, Oliva said: "I'm not sure he has done anything. Mr. Ben David is accused of participating in a conspiracy to distribute ecstasy in the South Florida area."
According to federal authorities, Israelis control 75 percent of the American Ecstasy market from Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Israeli dealers have even supplied Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, the former Mafia enforcer and Ecstasy dealer.
DEA officials say the Israeli drug rings have often used Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn to smuggle the drugs. Several Hasidim have been caught with the contraband and arrested by New York police, including 72-year-old Machloof Ben-Chitritt, an Israeli-American who was used to smuggle 61,000 Ecstasy tablets. He was caught at Miami International Airport last year.
About $400,000 in cash and 200,000 Ecstasy tablets were seized during the investigation, the DEA said. Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, is a synthetic stimulant and hallucinogenic that became popular during the 1990s at all-night dance parties called raves.
Couriers carry tens of thousands of pills from Amsterdam to New York and then on to South Florida, where they are smuggled through the international airports, authorities say.
Then, tens of millions in Ecstasy profits are shipped back to Holland from the United States using the same smuggling techniques, according to officials.
In the past few years, several Israelis in South Florida, Los Angeles and New York have been indicted for conspiring to distribute Ecstasy.
"Miami has been since the early 1980s (and) perhaps the late 1970s, a focus for Israeli organized crime," said Israeli crime expert and Fordham University law professor Abraham Abramovsky.
"It is easier for an Israeli criminal to melt within a population where Israelis already reside," Abramovsky said. "That's the case in Miami."
U.S. marhsals are currently in Israel picking up the two men. They are expected back in South Florida within the next few days. And the Israeli prosecutor in Jerusalem says he has received numerous requests for extraditions of other Israelis wanted by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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