- Israel is at the center of international trade in the
drug ecstasy, according to a document published last week by the U.S. State
Department.
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- In recent years, organized crime in Israel, some with
links to criminal organizations in Russia, have come to control the distribution
of the drug in Europe, according to a Bureau for International Narcotics
and Law Enforcement Affairs document.
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- The same document also points out that Israeli criminal
groups have a hand in the distribution of ecstasy in North America.
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- During 2000, 80 percent of the ecstasy seized in North
America originated in the Netherlands, which is the largest production
center, along with Belgium and Poland. The State Department is certain
that Israeli organizations are linked to the laboratories in the Netherlands
and are responsible for the worldwide distribution.
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- "Israeli drug distribution organizations are currently
the main source for distribution of the drug to groups inside the U.S.,
to smuggling through express mail services, through couriers on commercial
flights and, recently, through air cargo," states the report. In the
past two years, the U.S. has dealt more severely with ecstasy. Federal
judges deal with smugglers in the ecstasy trade with the same severity
as heroin and cocaine dealers.
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- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=280
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