Conquistador
2004-05-28 02:52:06 UTC
...AND ECSTASY IS ON THE TAP, IN EVERY SYNAGOGUE!
(Sources: State Sen. Joe Neal (D-Las Vegas); I-Team Exclusive
Channel 8 Eyewitness News investigative reporter George Knapp,
May 20; Las Vegas Sun April 30, 2004 Columnist Jeff German)
A Channel 8 TV investigative report on May 20 identified
a "new breed" of organized crime now taking over Las Vegas.
Unlike the Jewish gangsters Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel,
who Nevadans know created modern Las Vegas,
George Knapp reports that this new criminal syndicate,
while Israeli, may or may not be Jewish.
Knapp says: "The Las Vegas nightclub scene is the hottest in the
country, maybe in the world ... fueled by ECSTASY ... and where
there's ECSTASY, there is the Israeli mob."
The newscast and an earlier column by {Las Vegas Sun} writer
Jeff German report on an ongoing federal task force identifying
six main factions of this Israeli mob vying for supremacy in
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, saying that warfare has broken out in the Israeli
underworld.
Two of the biggest families identified, one
based in Jersulem and one in Tel Aviv, are involved in a bloody
war over control of street rackets in Israel.
But the reporters describe the Israeli crime groups
as much more sophisticated than the typical mafia,
having far-reaching international connections.
Key members have homes in multiple countries, and make most of
their money importing cocaine and Ecstasy from Europe into the US.
Drug task force affadavits revealed that Las Vegas
is now the site of many of the Ecstasy deals.
DEA agents say crime family members have cultivated ties
with local casinos, members of the legal community, and Israeli
born-businessmen, some of whom are being shaken down for millions of dollars
in protection rackets.
Investigators also say beyond Ecstasy,
they are involved in money laundering, prostitution,
etc.
On April 6, following an investigation that began in Las
Vegas, a federal indictment was quietly unsealed in Los Angeles
charging several suspected Israel crime figures who have ties to
Las Vegas with conspiracy, extortion, and money laundering.
Agents allege these figures are members
of the Jerusalem crime family known as the "Jerusalem Network."
The biggest fish is Gabriel Ben Harosh,
a 39-year old jet-setting No. 2 man in the Jerusalem Network,
which authorities believe is run by Istzhak Abergil,
recently ordered to leave Israel amid the rising violence.
Harosh is also tied to Zeev Rosenstein, a casino owner,
drug financier and reigning mob godfather, whose top-ranked
associate, according to Israeli police, is Hai Waknine.
Waknine and Harosh were named
in a $40 million Los Angeles-based Ecstasy ring
broken up in 2000.
Waknine is currently under federal indictment in LA
for money laundering, and his brother Assaf,
currently on the lam,
was one of the alleged ringleaders of the busted Ecstasy ring.
Harosh, represented by Las Vegas lawyer David Chesnoff,
was taken into custody in Toronto.
The lawyer denies that Harosh is a high-ranking member
of an Israeli organized crime syndicate,
as the investigators charge in sworn affadvavits,
saying his Moroccan-born client is a legitimate businessman
and owner of one of the biggest construction companies in Israel.
The network appears to be centered in Las Vegas,
Los Angeles, and Miami in the US, and internationally in
Israel, Morocco, and Spain.
Clarke County Sheriff Bill Young, who was interviewed on
Channel 8, has detectives assigned to a joint federal drug task
force investigating the Israeli crime connection in Las Vegas.
Young said, "They're really trying to rear their ugly head in Las Vegas,"
and the reporter indicated that one ranking crime figure
was overhead a year ago on a court-approved wiretap describing
Las Vegas as "wide open" territory.
Also of note of course, is that Las Vegas
was one three cities cited today by Ashcroft and Mueller
as a possible target of terrorist activities
(Sources: State Sen. Joe Neal (D-Las Vegas); I-Team Exclusive
Channel 8 Eyewitness News investigative reporter George Knapp,
May 20; Las Vegas Sun April 30, 2004 Columnist Jeff German)
A Channel 8 TV investigative report on May 20 identified
a "new breed" of organized crime now taking over Las Vegas.
Unlike the Jewish gangsters Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel,
who Nevadans know created modern Las Vegas,
George Knapp reports that this new criminal syndicate,
while Israeli, may or may not be Jewish.
Knapp says: "The Las Vegas nightclub scene is the hottest in the
country, maybe in the world ... fueled by ECSTASY ... and where
there's ECSTASY, there is the Israeli mob."
The newscast and an earlier column by {Las Vegas Sun} writer
Jeff German report on an ongoing federal task force identifying
six main factions of this Israeli mob vying for supremacy in
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, saying that warfare has broken out in the Israeli
underworld.
Two of the biggest families identified, one
based in Jersulem and one in Tel Aviv, are involved in a bloody
war over control of street rackets in Israel.
But the reporters describe the Israeli crime groups
as much more sophisticated than the typical mafia,
having far-reaching international connections.
Key members have homes in multiple countries, and make most of
their money importing cocaine and Ecstasy from Europe into the US.
Drug task force affadavits revealed that Las Vegas
is now the site of many of the Ecstasy deals.
DEA agents say crime family members have cultivated ties
with local casinos, members of the legal community, and Israeli
born-businessmen, some of whom are being shaken down for millions of dollars
in protection rackets.
Investigators also say beyond Ecstasy,
they are involved in money laundering, prostitution,
etc.
On April 6, following an investigation that began in Las
Vegas, a federal indictment was quietly unsealed in Los Angeles
charging several suspected Israel crime figures who have ties to
Las Vegas with conspiracy, extortion, and money laundering.
Agents allege these figures are members
of the Jerusalem crime family known as the "Jerusalem Network."
The biggest fish is Gabriel Ben Harosh,
a 39-year old jet-setting No. 2 man in the Jerusalem Network,
which authorities believe is run by Istzhak Abergil,
recently ordered to leave Israel amid the rising violence.
Harosh is also tied to Zeev Rosenstein, a casino owner,
drug financier and reigning mob godfather, whose top-ranked
associate, according to Israeli police, is Hai Waknine.
Waknine and Harosh were named
in a $40 million Los Angeles-based Ecstasy ring
broken up in 2000.
Waknine is currently under federal indictment in LA
for money laundering, and his brother Assaf,
currently on the lam,
was one of the alleged ringleaders of the busted Ecstasy ring.
Harosh, represented by Las Vegas lawyer David Chesnoff,
was taken into custody in Toronto.
The lawyer denies that Harosh is a high-ranking member
of an Israeli organized crime syndicate,
as the investigators charge in sworn affadvavits,
saying his Moroccan-born client is a legitimate businessman
and owner of one of the biggest construction companies in Israel.
The network appears to be centered in Las Vegas,
Los Angeles, and Miami in the US, and internationally in
Israel, Morocco, and Spain.
Clarke County Sheriff Bill Young, who was interviewed on
Channel 8, has detectives assigned to a joint federal drug task
force investigating the Israeli crime connection in Las Vegas.
Young said, "They're really trying to rear their ugly head in Las Vegas,"
and the reporter indicated that one ranking crime figure
was overhead a year ago on a court-approved wiretap describing
Las Vegas as "wide open" territory.
Also of note of course, is that Las Vegas
was one three cities cited today by Ashcroft and Mueller
as a possible target of terrorist activities