ACCUSED COCAINE DEALER CALLED ECSTASY KINGPIN

The Montreal native was accused of being a major supplier of Ecstasy
to customers in Miami Beach in the late 1990s, using young Hasidic
males to smuggle the drug into the United States.

The couriers were told they were smuggling diamonds and after
authorities shut down the ring, Mr. Erez was sentenced in a Brooklyn
court in 2001 to 15 years in prison.

He was out of custody just over four years later, after he
successfully managed to be transferred to a Canadian prison and was
granted parole.

Within months of his release, Mr. Erez, 38, was back in the spotlight.
This time he was splashed across local news reports in Toronto as the
victim of a shooting at the waterfront Westin Harbour Castle during
the long weekend of July, 2006.

Mr. Erez survived the three gunshot wounds by assailants he described
as "skinny Jamaicans," who opened fire near the elevator on the 28th
floor of the upscale hotel. Even as he lay bleeding, Mr. Erez was
frantically making calls on his cell phone.

The gunmen were never apprehended, but Toronto police quickly arrested
Mr. Erez, his girlfriend Nataly Abitan and Evgene (Andy) Starchik
after finding more than four kilograms of cocaine in a sports bag in
an ice room on the hotel floor where they were staying.

This time, instead of an ingenious plan to smuggle Ecstasy, Mr. Erez
was accused of organizing a simple hotel drug deal -- albeit with
cocaine with a street value of $400,000 -- that went wrong.

The Ontario Superior Court jury in the trafficking trial of Mr. Erez,
38, and Mr. Starchik, 26, began its deliberations yesterday afternoon.
It was not told of Mr. Erez's drug-smuggling past in order to protect
his right to a fair trial.

The star prosecution witness was Ms. Abitan, whose charges were stayed
earlier this year when she agreed to testify against her former
boyfriend and Mr. Starchik.

At one point, U. S. authorities in the Ecstasy investigation seized
$2-million from an overseas account of Mr. Erez. After his release
from prison though, he was forced to borrow money from Ms. Abitan to
cover his gambling debts.

Ms. Abitan testified that her boyfriend did not work and would demand
that she withdraw money from bank machines when he was on a losing
streak at a Montreal casino, which elicited snickers from Mr. Erez and
Mr. Starchik in court.

Mr. Erez eventually repaid her $17,000 when he received $100,000 in a
settlement with U. S. prison authorities after he nearly died of an
untreated illness while in custody.

The 30-year-old woman met Erez through a cousin in early 2006. She
said they met Mr. Starchik, a Vancouver resident, when he asked for
directions to the nearest synagogue, while in line at a Lebanese
fast-food restaurant in Montreal.

Ms. Abitan, a well-dressed and poised witness, used to be a personal
financial advisor at a bank. She gave the impression that she was from
a different social class than the defendants.

Mr. Starchik represented himself in the trial and instead of
questioning Ms. Abitan about her testimony that she saw the cocaine in
his sports bag, he suggested that she thought he was "not very Jewish"
and looked down on him as a person.

She drove Mr. Erez to Toronto that weekend, even though their
relationship was deteriorating, because she thought it would be a "fun
shopping trip."

At one point, the jury might have wondered if she had a product
placement deal in conjunction with her testimony.

Ms. Abitan testified about her trip to Tiffany's to have a bracelet
repaired. She complained that police seized her Burberry travel bag,
Gucci waist pouch, Chanel sunglasses and a package from Holt Renfrew.

She stated that she saw the cocaine in an Adidas sports bag she
believed was Mr. Starchik's, as well as the pair of Seven Jeans and
Armani Exchange socks she saw in the hotel room.

Ms. Abitan did not hide her contempt for Mr. Erez when defence lawyer
Michael Mc-Lachlan accused her of being a bitter woman, out to exact
revenge against her former boyfriend.

"If you are trying to say he ruined my life, that is the answer I
would have to give," said Ms. Abitan, who admitted she never called
911 after learning Mr. Erez was wounded, because she was afraid she
would be arrested.

The jury is scheduled to resume deliberations this morning.