BARCELONA ECSTASY RING BROKEN UP

BARCELONA, Spain -- Police have broken up a global Ecstasy smuggling
ring based here, arresting 23 people around the world in the
culmination of a yearlong international investigation, authorities
said Thursday.

Since May, authorities in Spain, the United States, Holland, Canada
and Australia have seized a quarter-million Ecstasy pills linked to
the ring. This week, the authorities rounded up the people suspected
of running the operation, including 11 Israelis, six Spaniards, and
two Moroccans.

The investigation, called "Operation Israel," was launched about a
year ago after Barcelona police noticed a group of Israelis with no
obvious sources of income living extravagantly in local resorts.

When alleged ringleader Oded Twito was arrested in May on a U.S.
extradition warrant, he provided information about the operation that
led to the new arrests, police said.

From Barcelona, the group directed the production of pills at
clandestine labs in the Netherlands for shipment to users in the
United States, Australia and Israel, police said. Profits were
funneled back to Israel, where they were laundered in real estate
purchases.

The ringleaders thought they were safe because they were far from
their activities, police spokeswoman Vanesa Ariet said.

Drug enforcement agents told Barcelona's La Vanguardia newspaper the
smuggling ring used elderly people as couriers to help avoid
suspicion at border checks. Police would not give a figure but the
newspaper said the ring distributed 1 million pills a year.

Ecstasy generally has a street value in the United States of between
$20 to $40 per pill.

Ecstasy, a synthetic psychoactive drug also known as MDMA, became
popular at late-night parties known as "raves," and its use has since
spread. U.S. Customs Service seizures have risen from about 400,000
pills in 1997 to more than 9 million in 2000.

The drug typically induces feelings of euphoria and dramatically
raises blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature.

The Barcelona ring was one of the main networks supplying the U.S.
market, authorities said.

The 10 suspects arrested in Spain include Michel Elkaiam, who police
said was Twito's right-hand man, and the rest of the ring leadership.

Spanish police said seven people associated with the operation were
arrested in the United States after the seizure of thousands of pills
in Miami.

"Operation Israel" was coordinated with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and Customs Service, and police in Israel, Germany,
Canada, Australia and the Netherlands.