DOZEN INDICTED IN ALLEGED ECSTASY RING

Courts: An Israeli Nicknamed 'Fat Man' Is Accused Of Heading Operation That
Smuggled Pills Into The U.S.

An Israeli man suspected of running the largest Ecstasy smuggling
network in the world was indicted by a Los Angeles federal grand jury
Tuesday, along with 11 alleged associates.

Currently in custody in Spain, Oded Tuito has been described by
federal investigators as the most prolific Ecstasy trafficker based
in Europe.

Using a stable of young female couriers, authorities said, Tuito's
organization smuggled millions of the illegal pills on flights from
major European cities to Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami. An
estimated 100,000 tablets reached Los Angeles each month, according
to federal agents.

Tuito, known to his friends as "Fat Man" or "Uncle," was charged with
a host of offenses, including running a continuing criminal
enterprise, punishable by 20 years to life in prison.

Federal grand juries in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Pittsburgh have indicted
him on similar charges.

Two weeks ago, federal, state and local law officers arrested eight
of Tuito's alleged subordinates in the Los Angeles area. They were
named in Tuesday's indictment.

Another defendant is also under arrest in Spain and two others are fugitives.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas P. Sleisenger, who brought the case to
the grand jury in Los Angeles, said efforts are underway to extradite
Tuito to the United States for trial.

The 40-year-old Tuito, who has lived in California, New York and
Europe, managed to beat a previous extradition attempt by U.S.
authorities.

In January 2000, French police arrested him outside Nice on a
provisional U.S. warrant. But Tuito persuaded a French civil court to
grant him a certificate of French nationality based on the fact that
his father had lived in Algeria when it was a French colony. A U.S.
treaty with France does not provide for extradition of French
nationals to the United States.

As a result, a French court dismissed the American extradition
request and set Tuito free in October.

"I don't think we're going to have that problem in Spain," Sleisenger
said Tuesday.

Sleisenger said the United States will also ask Spain to extradite
Michel Elkaiam, an Israeli who, according to investigators, took
control of the Ecstasy distribution network after Tuito's arrest in
Barcelona in May. Elkaiam was arrested there July 29. He was among
those indicted in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Also indicted were Jacob Levi of Sherman Oaks; Efraim Zafrani of Van
Nuys; Avraham Zafrani of New York City; Itay Aviv of Van Nuys; Victor
Morjosef of North Hollywood; Ira Shmuely of Santa Monica; Moshe Ben
Shitrit of Sherman Oaks; Kfir Bezek of Sherman Oaks; Rachel Lachmi of
Los Angeles; and Shimon Keslassy of North Hollywood.

Ben Shitrit and Avraham Zafrani are fugitives, Sleisenger said.

While Tuito and his chief lieutenant, Elkaiam, ran the network from
Europe, the indictment said, Levi, Ben Shitrit, Keslassy and the
Zafrani brothers orchestrated the receipt of Ecstasy shipments in Los
Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami.

Aviv, Bezek, Lachmi, Morjosef and Shmuely then joined them in selling
the drugs to wholesalers around the country, according to the
indictment.

At a bail hearing late Tuesday, Levi's lawyer, Ronald Richards, said
his client is a legitimate building contractor "who possibly did a
couple of deals" involving Ecstasy, but he denied that Levi figured
in any international drug ring.

Levi, who is charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise,
was denied bond by a federal magistrate.

The investigation of the Tuito organization was launched more than
two years ago by law enforcement authorities in the United States,
Europe and Israel.

Tuito's organization allegedly recruited dozens of young women,
principally from California, Nevada, New York, Florida and Israel, to
work as couriers. The group had a preference for hiring dancers and
waitresses at topless nightclubs, according to officials.

More recently, they said, the ring began shipping Ecstasy in larger
quantities by stuffing the pills into hollow picture frames.

Ecstasy, known scientifically as MDMA, is a stimulant and a
hallucinogen that induces a high lasting up to six hours. It began
showing up in the 1990s at all-night, teenage rave parties, rapidly
gaining popularity among American youths.

An Ecstasy tablet costs about 50 cents to manufacture in underground
labs in Europe, where the drug's precursor chemicals are easy to buy.
In the United States, a pill can cost as much as $25 on the street.