L.A.-BASED DRUG RING BROKEN UP, U.S. SAYS

Agents say 25 suspected Ecstasy smugglers have been arrested,
including ringleader.

Customs agents say they have broken up a Los Angeles-based smuggling
ring that imported millions of dollars worth of Ecstasy, the illicit
party drug increasingly popular among teenagers.

In the last several months, 25 suspects have been arrested, including
the ring's alleged mastermind, an Israeli emigre who has lived in
Southern California for the last 15 years.

Jacob "Koki" Orgad, 44, faces trial next month on federal charges of
running a criminal enterprise and conspiring to import and distribute
illegal drugs. "This guy was a real player," said Fred Walsh,
assistant special agent in charge of the Customs Service's Los Angeles
field office. "He had one of the best organized operations we've
encountered, and his people seemed to have a presence in every major
city where Ecstasy is the rage." Orgad, who once ran a pager service
in Los Angeles, has been held without bail as a flight risk since his
arrest in April. He has no prior arrests. In the early 1990s, he
traveled in the same social circles as Heidi Fleiss, the former "madam
to the stars" who supplied call girls to Hollywood executives and
other high rollers. Orgad's lawyer, Ronald Richards, insisted Tuesday
that his client is not guilty. "The government's case is based
entirely on the false testimony of convicted drug dealers or couriers
who were caught red-handed," Richards said. "No drugs or guns were
found when they searched my client's home. And there are no
surreptitious tape recordings of him taking part in any crime. He's
being wrongly accused."

A 23-count indictment returned against Orgad and 13 alleged
accomplices said the ring employed 30 to 50 couriers who posed as
tourists or business executives, to smuggle the drugs into the country
from Paris. The couriers included cocktail waitresses, dancers and
strippers recruited in Las Vegas and elsewhere, said Assistant U.S.
Atty. Julie Shemitz, who is prosecuting the case.

The ring also enlisted couples with blue-collar backgrounds, figuring
that customs inspectors would never suspect that they were smuggling
drugs in their false-bottom luggage, authorities said.

In one attempt to evade detection, a Texas couple working for the ring
brought a mentally handicapped teenager with them on a smuggling trip.
The two were arrested, however, when they arrived in Houston carrying
200,000 Ecstasy pills hidden in their luggage.

Typically, a customs agent said, each courier was given a paid
vacation to France plus $10,000 to $15,000 cash, in exchange for
bringing home a load of Ecstasy.

The federal indictment said Orgad's lieutenants gave couriers detailed
instructions on what to wear and how to behave on their flights.
Before leaving the United States, for example, each courier was taken
on a shopping trip and outfitted with clothes to match their cover
stories. The couriers were then photographed in their new clothes so
other ring members could recognize them when they arrived in Europe. A
customs official said Orgad's ring had been operating about two years
before it was first detected.

That occurred last July when customs inspectors at Los Angeles
International Airport intercepted two female couriers arriving on a
flight from Paris with 140,000 Ecstasy pills in their luggage and in
boxes of toys they were carrying.

Evidence in their belongings led investigators to higher-level members
of the ring in Los Angeles. In the ensuing months other couriers were
arrested in New York, Miami and Houston.

"This investigation began at the bottom of the organization and ended
at the top," said U.S. Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. In
addition to the arrests in the United States, French law enforcement
authorities arrested and charged two people accused of being Orgad's
top associates, David Levy and Melissa Schwartz. The French intend to
try them there. Two others indicted in the case eluded capture. One
defendant, identified only as Andre, is a Dutch chemist who allegedly
produced Ecstasy for the ring. Authorities said senior members of the
ring frequently traveled to Amsterdam or Brussels to pick up drugs
from him.

A U.S. customs official said the Netherlands has been the worldwide
center of Ecstasy production. A recent crackdown by Dutch police has
forced lab operators to shift some production to other European
countries, including Belgium and Poland, the official said.

Another indicted defendant, Matthew Carlton, fled to Australia before
he could be arrested. But Shemitz said he was found dead there
recently of an apparently self-administered drug overdose.

The Customs Service investigation, code-named Operation Paris Express,
has resulted in the seizure of nearly 650,000 Ecstasy tablets with a
retail value of about $20 million.

All told, investigators speculate that the ring smuggled more than 9
million tablets into the country for distribution on the West and East
coasts. Demand for Ecstasy has surged among young people in the United
States. It is especially popular among teenagers who frequent
nightclubs and all-night techno-dance parties known as raves.

Drug enforcement officials say huge profits are being made by Ecstasy
traffickers. The tablets cost just a few pennies each to make. By the
time they reach a nightclub in the United States, they can be sold for
$20 to $40 apiece. The Customs Service recently established an Ecstasy
Task Force at its Washington headquarters to coordinate anti-smuggling
efforts. In the first five months of the current fiscal year, customs
inspectors seized nearly 4 million doses of the drug. That was 1
million more than the agency intercepted in the entire previous year.