Pubdate: Thu, 17 Apr 2003
Source: New York Post (NY)
Copyright: 2003 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Kati Cornell Smith 
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

'BUSTED' DRUG LORD HIRED BUSTY STRIPPERS: FEDS 

An international "ecstasy" kingpin, accused of using beautiful, busty
strippers recruited from clubs like Scores to smuggle millions of
mind-bending pills into U.S. cities, was hauled into federal court yesterday
after years on the lam in Europe. 

Oded Tuito - an Israeli national accused of heading the world's largest
ecstasy ring - smiled and frequently interrupted as Brooklyn federal
Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollack summarized the charges. 

"Everything you told me I know," Tuito, 41, said through an interpreter. 

Flown in from Spain after fighting extradition for three years, Tuito
pleaded not guilty to the 13-count drug-distribution and money-laundering
indictment. 

The alleged club drug lord - who has slimmed down since he earned the name
"The Fat Man" based on his 240-pound physique - then made a special request
through his appointed attorney, Gary Villanueva. He wanted kosher food in
prison for Passover. 

Tuito's massive organization allegedly brought tens of millions of pills
into the United States and funneled them into the hands of people like
Gambino big John "Junior" Gotti and Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano,
authorities say. Some of the pills made their way into Peter Gatien's clubs,
the feds claim. 

To get the ecstasy here, Tuito's underlings scoped out the country's flesh
pits - recruiting at least two-dozen busty beauties from relatively ritzy
clubs like Manhattan's Scores and Tens, law-enforcement sources said. 

"A pretty girl coming back from Europe is less likely to get stopped. They
always are trying to deflect attention from customs inspectors," one
law-enforcement source said. 

The leggy drug mules allegedly carried up to 60,000 pills at a time through
various airports, in exchange for trips to Europe and $10,000 cash,
according to court papers filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Lacewell. 

And when the feds realized he was using women, he instead used Hassidic
high-school students to do his dirty work. Tuito's ring allegedly supplied
ecstasy to "house dealers" in Gatien's clubs Limelight and Tunnel in the
mid-1990s. 

And several of his smugglers came from Scores on Manhattan's East Side - a
club Junior Gotti was tied to in 1996 - and Tens, which is also on the East
Side. 

A number of these women have turned on Tuito, copping pleas to smuggling
charges, and are prepared to testify against him at trial, the source said. 

Last May, President Bush added Tuito to the official international "kingpin"
list - making him the only ecstasy peddler among 29 alleged drug lords who
have received that designation. 

Under the 1999 provision, authorities have frozen Tuito's assets. Pollack
ordered Tuito held without bail and set a new court date for April 30. 

He's facing 20 years to life in jail.
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