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Feds Accidentally
Stumble Into Israeli Ring'
In September 1999, two
young case agents at the Drug Enforcement Administration and
Federal Bureau of Investigation in Los Angeles got a tip about an
ecstasy dealer and taped his phone.
They got the bug. But
instead of nailing a small-time dealer, they stumbled upon a major
international Jewish ecstasy and cocaine distribution syndicate.
They suddenly realized that ecstasy was bigger than cocaine.
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Today's Pushers Are
Young And Sophisticated
Tamer Adel Ibrahim, 26, a
naturalized American who was born in Israel and moved to the States
as a teenager. This jet-setting, high-rolling playboy, was buying
cocaine from the Colombians, selling it for megabucks to Europeans,
and then using those profits to buy millions of ecstasy tablets from
the Netherlands to peddle in the United States.1
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Israelis Take Over
Red tide. Law enforcement officials say that the bust, dubbed
Operation Red Tide, is the largest seizure of ecstasy in the United
States and that Ibrahim, and his backers, were probably the
largest alleged wholesaler of the drug to date.
The case shows the rise of newly formed international, mostly
Israeli and Russian, organized crime syndicates aggressively
marketing ecstasy to Americans, mainly in their teens and 20s.
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Ecstasy Starts Out As A drug For Married Couples
Ecstasy was originally prescribed by marriage counselors in the
1970s because of its supposed ability to bring out the warm and
fuzzy feelings that couples had for each other (hence its nickname:
"the hug drug").
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Israelis Push It On Kids
What's most worrisome, say officials, is that younger and younger
Americans are trying it. Today, the use of ecstasy is growing faster
than any other illegal drug in the United States.
A University of Michigan survey conducted last year
indicates that 1.3 million of the nation's students in grades eight
through 12 have tried ecstasy at least once and that almost 450,000
students currently use it.
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Long Term Effects
Users like to say the drug is risk free. Not so, say experts, who
point to some serious side effects. The problem is that researchers
have yet to definitively determine whether there are any long-term
medical ills.
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Draws In The Worst Of The Worst
But law enforcement officials aren't taking any chances. "It
could be worse than cocaine. We just don't know," says DEA's
Christopher Giovino. He classifies these Jews as a super volatile
lot.
Giovino says, the upscale white gentile crowd will pay $50 a pop.
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DEA Grabbed Some Big Israelis
The Israeli/Russian Jews are fast learners. Authorities say they
would ship loads of ecstasy from Amsterdam to Los Angeles by way of
France, Korea, and Mexico, usually via Federal Express. Ibrahim
would then allegedly monitor the drug shipments on the Internet
using FedEx's package tracking system.
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Netherlands Labs
More than 90 percent of the ecstasy on the U.S. market comes from
the Netherlands and Belgium, where the drug is also illegal,
although Romania and Poland now are becoming players.
Robert Gagne, a DEA agent on Long Island says these Israelis Jews
have always had a history step in smuggling, and they know all the
tricks. They have been smuggling Belgium diamonds for centuries.
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Hasidic Were Always Smugglers
In Amsterdam, Erez allegedly built a giant ecstasy smuggling ring
using more than a dozen young Hasidic Jews as his couriers because
their innocent demeanor and conservative appearance got them past
airport security.
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Nouveau Rich
Yesterday Irv was an overweigh Bubeleh,
whose mother yelled because he never used toilet paper. Today Irving
is driving a $100,000 Mercedes, and going out with blond shiksas.
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Thank God For Jewish Judges
In New York, so many Hasidic Jews are being arrested as couriers
that a federal judge in Brooklyn blew a gasket during a March
sentencing hearing for one Hasidic teenager who was involved in the
giant smuggling ring allegedly run by Erez.
DEA agents were fed up with Hasdics getting off with community
service.
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Prosecutors Never Push The Cases
They always go out of there way to avoid hurting one of their
own.
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