Last update - 00:00 02/11/2006
Federal judge delays trial of alleged Israeli Ecstasy kingpin
By The Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida - A federal judge agreed Thursday to delay until next year the trial of Zeev Rosenstein - the Israeli charged with operating a worldwide Ecstasy trafficking organization.
U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas set a new Jan. 22 trial date for Rosenstein after his attorney, Roy Black, and federal prosecutors said they needed more time to gather evidence and interview witnesses in Europe, Israel and elsewhere.
"We have a number of difficulties related to the investigation of this case," Black said.
Trial had been scheduled to begin Nov. 27 for Rosenstein, 51, who is charged with conspiring to distribute more than 1 million pills of the synthetic drug MDMA, or Ecstasy, in the United States.
Rosenstein has pleaded not guilty and has been held without bail since his March extradition from Israel.
Dimitrouleas also must decide whether to grant a U.S. request to allow up to six Israeli undercover agents to testify in the case wearing disguises, including wigs and fake facial hair. They want their identities and tactics to remain secret.
Rosenstein's lawyers said such disguises are not proper in a U.S. court and would violate Rosenstein's rights.
"Admitting the surveillance testimony without allowing Rosenstein full cross examination of the surveillance agents would be fundamentally at odds with the constitutional right of confrontation," Rosenstein's lawyers said in court papers.