BUSINESSMAN ACCUSED OF SMUGGLING IN ECSTASY

SAN FRANCISCO -- U.S. officials have arrested a Los Angeles
businessman and charged him with attempting to import nearly 300
pounds of Ecstasy, the single largest seizure of the illegal drug in
the United States.

Benjamin Wizmann, 41, was arrested May 10 on charges that he paid a
confidential informant in the U.S. Customs Service to smuggle three
packages of Ecstasy through San Francisco International Airport.

The packages -- labeled ``cotton pants'' but actually containing
nearly 490,000 Ecstasy pills with a street value of about $15 million
- -- arrived in San Francisco on Monday on a flight from Paris, the U.S.
Attorney's Office said in a news release issued Thursday.

Ecstasy, also known as ``MDMA,'' is a party drug that has grown in
popularity with young people involved in the local nightclub scene.