Spain Holds Israeli
Drug Lord Wanted by U.S. [Associated Press/Haaretz] May 23, 2001 "An Israeli [Oded Tuito] described as a major international smuggler of the drug Ecstasy is in custody in Spain awaiting a court decision on an American request for his extradition ...Spanish newspapers report that Tuito ran a massive smuggling operation in Europe, Israel, and the United States ... Israeli crime syndicates with links to Russian mobs are the primary source of Ecstasy smugglied in the United States, according to the DEA." 'Sammy the Bull' Trial Lifts Veil on Israelis in Ecstasy Trade. [Jewish] Forward, January 19, 2001 "A celebrated mob informant's trial on drug-distribution charges is opening a window on an aspect of the drug trade that many New Yorkers would rather ignore. According to federal and local law enforcement officials, Israeli criminals have cornered the market on the drug ecstasy, controlling by some accounts as much as 75% of the American market ... According to the Drug Enforcement Agency's web page, 'In recent years, Israeli organized crime syndicates, some composed of Russian émigrés associated with Russian organized crime syndicates, have forged relationships with Western European traffickers, and gained control over a significant share of the European market. The Israeli syndicates are currently the primary sources to U.S. distribution groups." ... 'There are a lot of Israeli criminals in the three major hubs, New York, Miami and Los Angeles, so they didn't have to reinvent the wheel," Mr. Abramovsky said ... In July 1999, after a 21-month investigation, a joint federal-state organized crime-drug enforcement task force uncovered a smuggling operation that relied mostly on carriers of an unexpected nature in the drug business: young chasidic men. ... Sean Erez, an Israeli who according to the authorities ran the ring, is still in Amsterdam, where authorities are weighing a request for extradition to the United States. In February 2000, another ecstasy ring ran by Israeli citizens was exposed in Queens, N.Y. The group, allegedly headed by Oshri Amar, the son of a famous 1950s-era Israeli pop singer, was alleged by authorities to be distributing MDMA in clubs on the East Coast and in California. Some of these clubs made huge headlines in the New York press in the mid-1990s, where they were dubbed 'drug bazaars' ... Drug officials assert that additional side effects include anxiety and depression, and in the long run also permanent brain damage. The ecstasy trade is building a new reputation for Israeli criminal muscle, especially when combined with Russian gangs." Dream trip that turned into an Indian jail nightmare, Briton, 22, held for smuggling hashish after carrying friend's case at airport, Guardian (UK), January 8, 2003 "She should, by now, have been relaxing on a beach in Australia. But last night Daisy Angus, a 22-year-old British backpacker, was preparing for another night in a squalid Indian cell after her round-the-world trip turned into a nightmare. Ms Angus, from Bournemouth, Dorset, was arrested in Bombay six weeks ago after agreeing to carry a suitcase belonging to an Israeli friend. As she went though customs, Indian officials, to her horror, discovered 10kg (22lb) of hashish hidden in a secret compartment. They immediately arrested Ms Angus, who is now locked up in central Bombay's grim neo-gothic Arthur Road prison. She is likely to be charged with drug smuggling. If convicted, she faces the prospect of 10 years in an Indian jail .. Her co-accused, Israeli businessman Yoran Kadesh, 37, is in the same prison. Indian officials captured him as he attempted to run away from the airport. Ms Angus's father John - who is in Bombay trying to negotiate her release - said she was utterly distraught. She had contracted malaria within a week of her detention in late November, and was now very sick, and sharing a small, filthy cell with 43 other women inmates. 'Whenever I see her in prison she just says: 'Daddy daddy daddy. You can't leave me here'," he said last night. 'This has absolutely destroyed us. It hasn't just affected me but our three other kids and grandchildren. Daisy is not capable of this. The only thing she has ever wanted to do is help people. She has been set up' ... The backpacker, a trainee fitness instructor, spent her early childhood in India when her parents worked for five years as volunteers in Mother Teresa's home for the destitute in Calcutta ... Ms Angus met Mr Kadesh on an earlier trip. She agreed to fly to Amsterdam with him after he told her it was the only way he could pay back money he had borrowed from her. 'Her rucksack broke,' Mrs Angus [mother] said. 'He gave her a suitcase and asked her to put her clothes inside. She put them in and carried on doing her make-up. "He took the suitcase downstairs and a porter took it to the airport. She never realised how heavy the case was ... Her ordeal focuses attention on India's flourishing drug trade - and on the remote Kullu valley in north India, where Mr Kadesh apparently ran a shop with his 41-year-old brother. The beautiful valley is known for its cheap and plentiful supply of hashish - and attracts thousands of backpackers each year. It also has a sinister side. Some 15 western tourists have disappeared there without trace. Indian police have planted drugs on foreigners and demanded large bribes for their release. A powerful Israeli mafia allegedly controls much of the trade. Last month a British charity worker, Ian Stillman, was released from prison early after being convicted in similar circumstances."
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