490,000 Ecstasy Pills Seized at Airport
U.S. Customs Service agents intercepted nearly half a million tablets of the drug ecstasy that arrived on a passenger flight from Paris, disguised in cargo boxes that were shrink-wrapped and labeled “cotton pants.”
It was one of the largest ecstasy seizures in the country and reflects a sharp increase in the popularity of the hallucinogenic drug, said Robert Stiriti, an assistant agent in charge of the Customs Service’s San Francisco office.
“It is the drug of choice of young party-goers today,” Stiriti said Friday at a news conference announcing Monday’s seizure.
Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, usually comes in a small, white or gray powdery pill. It is popular among American teenagers and people at nightclubs, and sells for about $45 per tablet.
The 490,000 pills confiscated from a United Airlines flight at San Francisco International Airport top the 1997 total of 400,000 tablets seized nationwide and push this year’s total to 5.2 million pills, compared with 3.5 million seized in 1999.
The seizure was the result of a yearlong sting operation and led to Wednesday’s arrest of Ben Wizmann, 41, at his Los Angeles home. He is charged with conspiracy, smuggling, conspiracy to import a controlled substance, and importing a controlled substance, and is being held without bail.
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