Zeev Rosenstein ( he, זאב רוזנשטיין; born 1954) is an infamous

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i drug trafficker. Rosenstein was born in Jaffa to immigrant parents, a

Romanian Jewish The history of the Jews in Romania concerns the Jews both of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is present-day Romanian territory. Minimal until the 18th century, the size of the Jewish population increased after ...

father and a Mountain Jewish mother. He never completed high school, and instead worked in an electronics store on

Allenby Street Allenby Street ( he, רחוב אלנבי ''Rehov Alenbi'') is a major street in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was named in honor of Field Marshal Viscount Allenby. Allenby Street stretches from the Mediterranean Sea in the northwest to HaAliya Street in ...

in Tel Aviv until beginning his mandatory service in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branch ...

. Rosenstein served in Camp Rabin, but left the army before completing his full term of service. Rosenstein began his criminal career in his youth, starting with small break-ins. With the exception of a

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

conviction In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which is co ...

in the 1970s, police had never managed to gather sufficient evidence to

indict An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...

Rosenstein. On 11 December 2003, a bomb aimed at Rosenstein killed three people and injured 18 others in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

. The bombing, which occurred during the peak of the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel. ...

, led to a media outcry against the Israeli mob families, with newspapers comparing them with the Intifada's

Palestinian terror Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence perpetrated for political ends in relation to the State of Palestine or in connection with Palestinian nationalism. Common political objectives include self-determination in and sovereig ...

ists in terms of threat to the Israeli state. Ariel Sharon called an emergency cabinet meeting and the government announced an extra 500 million shekels in the fight against organized crime. The bombing was the seventh attempt on the life of Rosenstein, who became known as the "wolf with seven lives", and was said to have been carried out by the Abergil Crime Family, which Rosenstein had been feuding with for several years. In November 2004, after 700,000 ecstasy tablets were seized in a

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of counties in New York, origin ...

apartment, he was charged with distributing ecstasy in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

in a joint effort of

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

and

Israeli Ministry of Justice The Justice Ministry ( he, מִשְׂרָד הַמִשְׁפָּטִים, ''Misrad HaMishpatim''; ar, وزارة العدل) is the Israeli government ministry that oversees the Israeli judicial system. Since 13 June 2021, Israel's Minister of J ...

. After exhausting his legal options in Israel, a precedent-setting decision by the

Supreme Court of Israel ar, المحكمة العليا , image = Emblem of Israel dark blue full.svg , imagesize = 100px , caption = Emblem of Israel , motto = , established = , location = Givat Ram, Jerusalem , coordinat ...

extradited Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two juris ...

Rosenstein to the U.S. on 6 March 2006, making him one of very few Israelis to ever be extradited for prosecution in another country, especially the United States. Rosenstein pleaded not guilty in U.S. court to the distribution of ecstasy and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In accordance with the extradition treaty between Israel and the U.S., he was returned to Israel to serve his U.S.-imposed sentence in an Israeli prison. As part of his plea agreement in the U.S., he had confessed to having hired assassins to kill rival mafia leaders in Israel, which he had previously denied. As a result, upon his return to Israel he was charged with conspiracy to murder. He reached a plea bargain, and was sentenced to an additional five years in prison.http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/206/382.html

References

External links

USDOJ Press Release announcing his arrest
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenstein, Zeev 1954 births Living people Israeli people of Mountain Jewish descent Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent People from Jaffa Israeli drug traffickers Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government