I-95 STOP UNCOVERS ECSTASY

30 Pounds Of Drug Valued At $1.7 Million Found In Car

An Interstate 95 traffic stop netted Delaware State Police nearly 30 pounds
of the club drug Ecstasy last week, police said Thursday The drugs are
valued at $1.7 million.

Two Israeli nationals were being held, each in lieu of $1.6 million secured
bail, police said.

State police said they waited more than a week to announce the arrests to
help investigators.

"We needed to know who we were dealing with," state police spokesman Cpl.
Walter Newton said.

State police said the seizure was the largest ever on an East Coast highway.

Yizhac Sabag, 30, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., and his passenger Yehiel Amoyal,
25, of Brooklyn, N.Y., were charged with possessing Ecstasy with intent to
deliver, maintaining a vehicle for the use or sale of drugs and conspiracy.
Sabag also was charged with traffic offenses.

Police said the men are from Haifa, Israel, and had expired visas. They
were jailed in Gander Hill prison.

Troopers stopped the men after seeing their 2000 Geo Metro make two
dangerous moves about 2:30 p.m. April 11 near Del. 273. A suitcase filled
with several plastic bags weighing 28.6 pounds was found on the back seat.
The bags contained 68,400 tablets. The tablets sell for about $25 each, and
would have had a street value of about $1.7 million, police said.

State police said they do not know where the men were bound.

Ecstasy, or XTC, is a synthetic mind-altering drug with hallucinogenic
properties. It has side effects that include depression, sleep problems,
anxiety, paranoia and can cause brain damage.

Young adults and teens often use the drug at nightclubs and rave parties.
Raves are dances that attract young people and often last all night.

Medical experts are debating whether Ecstasy is addictive, but there is
increasing evidence it can be dangerous. James R. McDonough, director of
Florida's Office of Drug Control, said 10 people die each month in Florida
directly or indirectly from Ecstasy use.

Ecstasy use has been growing in Delaware and nationwide, Federal Drug
Enforcement Administration resident agent Tim Bucher.

"It's pretty well all over this area," Bucher said.

Customs officials at Philadelphia International Airport on Jan. 31
confiscated 210,100 Ecstasy tablets with an estimated retail value of $5.25
million from two German nationals who flew in from Paris.

Last year, customs officials seized a record 9.3 million Ecstasy tablets,
up from 3.5 million in 1999.