Member of Israeli Crime Family Sentenced for Role in Ecstasy Scheme

A member of an Israeli organized crime family was sentenced Tuesday in Los Angeles to eight years in federal prison for his part in a scheme to import Ecstasy pills from Belgium into the United States.

Israel Ozifa, 53, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder to serve three years under supervised release after getting out of federal prison.

As an essential member of the Abergil crime family — described as one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Israel — Ozifa could be considered the chief executive officer "of the subsidiary of the organization that was running the drugs" to the United States, Snyder said.

Last month, Snyder sentenced co-defendant Moshe Malul to 15 years behind bars for his part in a 2003 killing in Sherman Oaks in which the victim interfered with an Abergil gang Ecstasy deal.

Wiretaps clearly showed Ozifa "giving orders" to other participants lower down in the scheme, the judge said.

According to a 77-page, 32-count indictment filed by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, Ozifa, family head Itzhak Abergil and associates operated one of the largest Ecstasy importation rings in the United States and worked closely with the Vineland Boyz, a San Fernando Valley street gang, to peddle the drugs.

Ozifa was an "important, trusted and, most important, productive member" of the organization, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Childs said, telling the judge that the Ecstasy conspiracy "was the Ozifa show."

Defense attorney Roger Rosen, arguing for a sentence of time served, said his client was "really the running dog" of the Abergil family and merely followed orders.

Ozifa "may not be as evil or as horrible a person" as prosecutors have portrayed, Rosen said.

In pushing for the lightest possible sentence, the defense attorney argued that Ozifa had already spent nearly five years in pre-trial custody in Belgium, Israel and the United States.

Addressing the judge, the defendant acknowledged that "there was a period of time when I did do things that were wrong."

During the investigation, federal agents intercepted about 100,000 Ecstasy pills at hubs in the Midwest that were being shipped to Southern California. The street price for the drugs was estimated at about $2 million, prosecutors said.

At the time of the 2003 shipment, Ozifa and other members of the Abergil group were under investigation by Belgian authorities.

Ozifa — who spent 10 months in custody in Belgium — and several co-defendants were extradited in January 2011 to the United States from Israel. The extradition was the first of its kind under Israel's racketeering law, which parallels the United States federal racketeering statute known as RICO, which is designed to combat organized crime.

Ozifa pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to import Ecstasy.

Family leader Abergil was sentenced in May to 10 years behind bars after pleading guilty to federal charges. He will serve his time in Israel, according to prosecutors.