The Jerusalem Post, Internet News Article, August 2nd,
2001:
International
Ecstasy ring smashed by police
By Itim
JERUSALEM (August 2) - An Ecstasy-smuggling ring has been
cracked by the Israel Police, in collaboration with its counterparts
in the US and Europe.
Seventeen Israelis are being held in Spain and the US, and more
arrests are expected. The ring is believed to have operated for a
year.
The investigation began in March, when the Northern District
police learned that an Ecstasy ring led by Oded Tuito was still
active, although he was under arrest in Barcelona on different
charges. The district passed information it had to the various
countries concerned, and set up joint surveillance operations.
A big break came when three Israelis - Eitan and Erez Noi and
Yosef Hotvashvilli - were arrested in Barcelona for several
jewelry-store heists, which turned up enough evidence to arrest
Michel Elkayam - believed to have led the Ecstasy ring in lieu of
Tuito - and his accomplices in North America.
These are Ya'acov Levy, of Netanya; Victor Mor-Yosef, of Afula;
Ephraim Za'afri, of Rehovot; Shimon Kaslasi, of Kiryat Bialik; Rahel
Lahmi, of Rehovot; Itai Aviv, of Upper Nazareth; and Kfir Bazak, of
Afula. Also under arrest are Yitzhak Sabag, of Yokne'am; Yehiel
Amouyal, of Haifa; Nissim Alul, of Netanya; and Oren Gadasi, of Even
Yehuda.
Half a million Ecstasy pills were also seized in various locations
worldwide - some of the millions the ring is believed to have
smuggled. Elderly couriers were favored by the ring, as were
anonymous mailing addresses to which the drugs would be shipped.
Among those arrested in Barcelona was Shimon Itah, a known felon
from Haifa, who is suspected of laundering the ring's profits.
On July 18, David Ro'ash and Yisrael Ashkenazi, both of Tel Aviv,
were arrested in New York in a raid in which police seized Ecstasy
pills worth $40 million, reportedly the largest cash-value drug haul
in New York history.
