By DAN IZENBERG
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected suspected underworld figure Ze'ev Rosenstein's appeal against his extradition to the United States to stand trial on charges of conspiring to smuggle drugs into the US.
In his appeal, Rosenstein complained that the Extradition Law between Israel and the US was being misused by Israel. Suspects were always extradited on suspicion of having committed a crime in a foreign country and fleeing back to their homeland for sanctuary. But Rosenstein had always lived in Israel, was not suspected of having committed a crime abroad and had not fled back to Israel for sanctuary, his defense claimed.
According to the extradition request sent by the US government, Rosenstein is wanted to stand trial in the US District Court in southern Florida on the basis of complaints that he was involved in smuggling more than one million ecstasy pills into the US. Another charge involves a plan to smuggle 700,000 ecstasy pills which were seized by New York City police on July 17, 2001.