SUSPECTED ECSTASY SUPPLIER LOSES EXTRADITION FIGHT

NEW YORK -- An Israeli living in the Netherlands who was identified as one
of the biggest exporters of the drug Ecstasy to the United States will be
brought to Brooklyn to face federal drug charges.

Sean Erez -- accused in a U.S. indictment of heading a ring that flooded
the East Coast market with more than 1 million pills -- has exhausted all
extradition appeals in the Netherlands, authorities said Wednesday.

Erez, 30, and his girlfriend, Diana Reicherter, 22, who was also arrested
in Amsterdam in 1999, had "opposed extradition on the grounds of their
alleged psychiatric condition," prosecutor Linda Lacewell wrote in papers
filed this week in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. But a high-court judge
in the Netherlands rejected their final appeal last week, she added.

A spokesman for the Dutch Ministry of Justice, Victor Holtus, confirmed
that Erez and Reicherter would be sent to Brooklyn "very shortly."

Authorities say Erez was the alleged brains behind an international
smuggling operation that used Hasidic Jewish youths as drug couriers. The
youths were recruited on the belief that their conservative look -- black
hats, dark suits, and side curls -- would deflect the attention of Customs
inspectors at Kennedy Airport.

Prosecutors allege that Erez also laundered millions of dollars in drug
proceeds. A Luxembourg bank account frozen at the time of his arrest
contained $472,000.

If convicted of drug conspiracy and money laundering charges, Erez and
Reicherter would face up to 20 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines.

Erez and Reicherter allegedly moved from Manhattan to Amsterdam in 1998 to
cash in on the lucrative and burgeoning trade in Ecstasy, a synthetic drug
that combines the effects of amphetamines and hallucinogens. According to
federal authorities, it is manufactured in Amsterdam at a cost of 50 cents
to $2 a pill and retails for $25 to $30 in New York City.