The High Court ruled Wednesday that reputed local mobster Zeev Rosenstein may be extradited to the U.S on drug trafficking charges, backing an earlier court decision to try "Israel's top criminal."
Israeli police, acting on an international arrest warrant, arrested Rosenstein a year ago for allegedly smuggling drugs from the European Union to the United States, including an attempt to export 700,000 Ecstasy tablets to New York.
A Jerusalem District Court judge ruled in April that Rosenstein would be extradited, after being wanted by the U.S government.
“The U.S. has an interest in trying the defendant, because while the (criminal) connection was made in Israel, it was carried out entirely outside of Israel,” Judge Yaakov Tzaban wrote in his decision at the time.
“The drugs were distributed and meant for distribution in the U.S., the investigation began and was conducted there, most of the evidence is there, and most of the (drug) network members were tried there,” he said.
Rosenstein’s attorneys promptly appeal the verdict to the High Court, which ruled Wednesday in favor of the district court's previous decision.
Rosenstein denies allegations
The affair began in July 2001, when two Israeli citizens, David Roash and Yisrael Ashkenazi, were arrested in New York for possession of one million Ecstasy pills and a large sum of money.
During their interrogation, the two said they had been sent by Rosenstein to distribute the drugs.
Following his arrest, Rosenstein vehemently denied the allegations, but an Israel Police source said at the time, “Today, we are concluding the first chapter in Israeli society’s war against those who have endangered it.”
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