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Israeli policemen escort Zeev Rosenstein (center) to a flight bound to Miami, USA, at the Ben Gurion airport Monday. (AP)
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| By Associated Press March 6, 2006 |
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| U.S. marshals escort suspected Israeli mob boss Zeev Rosenstein (center) into a plane bound to Miami, Monday. (AP) |
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A suspected Israeli mob boss, described by U.S. prosecutors as one of the world's most wanted drug traffickers, was extradited to the United States on Monday, police said.
Zeev Rosenstein, suspected of involvement in distributing more than 1 million Ecstasy pills in the United States, mostly in New York and Miami, was handed over to U.S. marshals at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv and taken aboard a direct El Al flight to Miami, where he will face the drug charges, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.
The target of numerous gangland assassination attemps in the past, Rosenstein was driven to the airport in an undercover police car accompanied by several motorcycles, Israeli radios reported.
"It was a carefully-planned operation, under sensitive circumstances, designed to ensure that he arrived at the airport in peace and quiet, without any disturbance to public order," Rosenfeld said.
He said the extradition was the result of a long investigation conducted in coordination with U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Israeli police, acting on an international arrest warrant, arrested Rosenstein more than a year ago for allegedly smuggling drugs from Europe to the United States.
A U.S. extradition request, submitted in December 2004, said Rosenstein was involved in distributing more than 1 million pills of Ecstasy, court documents said.
In November, Israel's Supreme Court ruled he could be extradited, a decision later endorsed by the Israeli justice minister.
In one shipment, Rosenstein allegedly planned distribution of 700,000 Ecstasy pills that were seized in a Manhattan apartment along with $187,000 in July 2001, according to the extradition request. The drugs, which originated in Europe, were seized after they were offered for sale to an undercover Miami-Dade County police informant. The informant also worked for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The investigation leading to Rosenstein's arrest spanned three years and several countries.
Rosenstein, 51, has long been accused of being one of Israel's top mob leaders, but aside from a five-year stint in prison for armed robbery in the 1970s, he had eluded authorities.
In December 2003, a bomb attack in Tel Aviv targeted Rosenstein - the seventh attempt on his life - leaving him with scratches but killing three passers-by and wounding 18 others. The attack was believed to have been ordered by rival mob bosses.
Rosenstein has been charged in the United States with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and conspiracy to import a controlled substance into the United States. The maximum penalty under American law is 20 years in prison, or more if the drugs sold caused death or serious injury.
In an interview, published Friday in the Yediot Ahronot daily, Rosenstein said he was a victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by Israeli police.
"I'm not the head of a crime family, and I don't have soldiers," he said.
According to the extradition agreement between Israel and the United States, Rosenstein could serve any prison sentence he receives in Israel.
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