SAO PAULO, Brazil - An Israeli man known as the "King of Ecstasy" and alleged to be one of the world's foremost traffickers of the drug was arrested Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, police said.
El Al Yoram, 35, is wanted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Interpol and the Israeli and Uruguayan police, said Brazilian Federal Police spokesman Altair da Costa.
Costa said Yoram arrived in Brazil a few days ago and was under surveillance by local authorities before his arrest in a Rio apartment on international drug trafficking charges.
Yoram is alleged to have smuggled some 1.4 million pills of the synthetic drug MDMA — also known as Ecstasy — into the United States in 2004.
U.S. authorities have already requested his extradition, Costa said, adding that Brazilian authorities would likely expedite that process.
Yoram left the United States in 2004 and had been hiding in Uruguay, where he was arrested in 2005 but fled from jail, authorities said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061224/..._drug_arrest_1
24-12-2006, 22:05
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