Disclaimer: The statements and articles listed here, and any opinions, are those of the writers alone, and neither are opinions of nor reflect the views of this Blog. Aggregated content created by others is the sole responsibility of the writers and its accuracy and completeness are not endorsed or guaranteed. This goes for all those links, too: Blogs have no control over the information you access via such links, does not endorse that information, cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information provided or any analysis based thereon, and shall not be responsible for it or for the consequences of your use of that information.

Monday, 13 October 2008

Sean Erez wheeler-dealer international Ecstasy trafficker


Sean Erez wounded in a botched Harbourfront transaction once masterminded America's largest Ecstasy smuggling ring, which employed naive Hasidic Jews as couriers. But the jury now deliberating whether Sean Erez, 38, is guilty of possession for the purposes of trafficking cocaine never heard of his past orchestration of a ring that exported a million pills from Amsterdam to New York and Miami in the 1990s. It was the largest Ecstasy importing ring uncovered in the U.S. at that time. Erez's couriers included teenaged Hasidic students -- some lured by a cover story of smuggling diamonds -- who transported tens of thousands of pills with Superman and yin and yang symbols on them. "He was a wheeler-dealer. But what he did was shocking to the Jewish community," said Lisa Sweetingham, author of Chemical Cowboys, a soon-to-be released book on international Ecstasy trafficking networks.
"He exploited these very naive youths, who were insulated from the modern, corrupt world. They had the opportunity to travel to Europe, make a lot of money, go to casinos and night clubs," said Sweetingham. Shimon Levita, then 17, was star-struck by Erez's flashy lifestyle, which included a beautiful apartment in a trendy Amsterdam neighbourhood near a casino and the city's notorious red-light district.
Erez was a legitimate entrepreneur as well as a drug importer. He owned a yogurt parlour in Israel and a Manhattan jean shop. But his greatest profits came from his Ecstasy ring, which he established after working for the late Ecstasy kingpin Oded Tuito. While working for Tuito, Erez was caught with 100 pills and jailed for two months in 1998. Tuito, who died at 42 of a heart attack in 2004 while in prison awaiting trial for charges of selling his signature "Tweedy Bird" tablets, used strippers as his drug mules and paid them $10,000 to $20,000 for each time they transported drugs. "In jail, that's where Erez hatched the idea of using the most unlikely of couriers, Hasidic Jews, instead of strippers as Tuito did. And Erez only paid these teens dying to see the world -- night clubs -- a fraction of what Tuito was paying the stripper-mules," said a Drug Enforcement Ad -ministration source, who was a key investigator on the case but now works undercover. Erez paid Shimon Levita, now 27, $200 for each Hasidic Jew he recruited as a courier. The couriers received up to $2,000 for each trip, some carrying the pills inside athletic socks or false-bottomed suitcases, said the source. Erez was arrested for the massive Esctasy operation in Amsterdam in 1999. Another of Erez's recruiters, Simcha Roth, now 27, said during Erez's sentencing hearing that he couldn't explain his actions.
"Sean Erez made everything seem so easy. I was living in a fantasy world," Roth told the court. The free-wheeling world of easy money and travel came crashing down on Erez as his couriers were picked off by DEA agents and police. Eighteen of Erez's underlings pleaded guilty. Erez was eventually ordered imprisoned for 15 years in New York in 2001 after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy. But the sentence was slashed to 10 years -- the Canadian maximum -- when he was transferred to the Canadian prison system in June 2005. Two months later he was paroled. Eleven months after he was paroled, Erez was shot three times at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel by bandits looking to rob either him or co-accused dealer, Evgene "Andy" Starchik of 4.5 kilos of cocaine in a gym bag, according to the Crown.

0 comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Privacy

Site Specific Privacy Policy run in accordance with http://www.google.com/privacy.html
We can be reached via e-mail at
copsandbloggers@googlemail.com
For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically recognizes information of your browser, IP address, City/State/Country.
We collect only the domain name, but not the e-mail address of visitors to our Web page, the e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us via e-mail.
The information we collect is used for internal review and is then discarded, used to improve the content of our Web page, used to customize the content and/or layout of our page for each individual visitor.
With respect to cookies: We use cookies to store visitors preferences, record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors' browser type or other information that the visitor sends.
With respect to Ad Servers: To try and bring you offers that are of interest to you, we have relationships with other companies like Google (www.google.com/adsense) that we allow to place ads on our Web pages. As a result of your visit to our site, ad server companies may collect information such as your domain type, your IP address and clickstream information. For further information, consult the privacy policy of:
http://www.google.com/privacy.html
copsandbloggers@googlemail.com
If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us at the above email address.

Background

Privacy Policy (site specific)

Privacy Policy (site specific)
Privacy Policy :This blog may from time to time collect names and/or details of website visitors. This may include the mailing list, blog comments sections and in various sections of the Connected Internet site.These details will not be passed onto any other third party or other organisation unless we are required to by government or other law enforcement authority.If you contribute content, such as discussion comments, to the site, your contribution may be publicly displayed including personally identifiable information.Subscribers to the mailing list can unsubscribe at any time by writing to info (at) copsandbloggers@googlemail.com. This site links to independently run web sites outside of this domain. We take no responsibility for the privacy practices or content of such web sites.This site uses cookies to save login details and to collect statistical information about the numbers of visitors to the site.We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and would like to know your options in relation to·not having this information used by these companies, click hereThis site is suitable for all ages, but not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years old.This policy will be updated from time to time. If we make significant changes to this policy after that time a notice will be posted on the main pages of the website.

Stats

  © Blogger template Newspaper III by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP