Ecstasy's Early Years

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.

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.

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.

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").

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Prosecutors Never Push The Cases

They always go out of there way to avoid hurting one of their
own.

Columbine

Iran Sunburn

Natalee
Holloway

Electronic Trigger

John O'Neill

Judicial
Index