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- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Ultra-Orthodox
Jews served as couriers for a major international drugs ring that operated
in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Israel and the United States, Israeli
police said Tuesday.
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- The syndicate, led by two Israelis living in Europe,
was one of the world's largest producers of the synthetic drug ecstasy,
police said.
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- Updating arrest figures announced by Dutch police Monday
after dawn raids on the ring's drug laboratories in the Netherlands, Israeli
police said at a news conference that 41 suspects had been detained overseas
and another eight in Israel.
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- "The couriers were young Americans and Israelis,
most of them ultra-Orthodox Jews," an Israeli police spokesman said.
He declined to say whether they wore traditional black garb on their smuggling
runs.
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- About one million ecstasy tablets were seized by police
in Israel and abroad, the spokesman said.
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- Twenty-four Israelis, most of them living overseas, were
among those arrested.
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- Two Israelis, one residing in the Netherlands and the
other in Belgium, were the masterminds behind the operation, and an ultra-Orthodox
man recruited young religious Jews to smuggle the drugs. All three are
in custody, Israeli police said.
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- Dutch police said Monday's raids on 35 addresses in the
Netherlands and the Belgium city of Antwerp marked the culmination of a
three-year investigation.
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- Along with laboratory equipment used in making synthetic
drugs, five kilograms (11 lbs) of Semtex high explosive as well as weapons,
cars and money were also recovered, a Dutch police spokeswoman said.
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- Israeli police said an Israeli undercover agent had been
key to busting the ring.
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- The agent, who appeared at the Jerusalem news conference
disguised with a wig and false mustache, managed to buy 60,000 ecstasy
tablets from the main suspect in the investigation during 10 months of
undercover work in the Netherlands, police said.
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