More news from Jeysey... By MITCHEL MADDUX STAFF WRITER Federal authorities arrested nine North Jerseyans early Tuesday on charges that they smuggled Ecstasy tablets worth $10 million into the Garden State from Europe, officials said. Among those charged with helping carry more than 500,000 tablets of the "feel good" drug were a Maplewood police officer who lives in Clifton and a yoga instructor from Hasbrouck Heights, officials said. Federal officials said the Tuesday raids had successfully disrupted a trafficking operation that supplied the youth drug market in North Jersey. "What's more important than protecting America's homeland? Protecting our future, which is our children," said John P. Torres, special agent in charge of the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Newark. "An organization that is importing hundreds of thousands of Ecstasy tablets, which is very popular with young Americans, is something we will aggressively investigate and prosecute." The synthetic drug is popular at clubs and at nightspots along the Jersey shore because of its perceived power to lower inhibitions and heighten feelings of exhilaration. Ecstasy has been found in all of New Jersey's 21 counties, state officials say, and is sometimes used at teenage parties in suburban neighborhoods. Authorities said Christopher Rea, 35, of West New York ran the operation, recruiting some of the couriers from a group of students at Montclair State University. The couriers - including two each from Bergen, Passaic, and Morris counties - carried an average of 50,000 tablets strapped to their torsos with duct tape. They were paid an average of $8,000 a trip, officials said. The couriers flew to Madrid, Rome, Milan, Lisbon, and other European cities carrying large sums of cash to pay for the drugs, officials said. The couriers then flew or took trains to Amsterdam, where they handed over the cash and received the drugs from a wholesaler at a prearranged meeting, officials said. After returning to the other European cities, the couriers boarded commercial flights bound for Newark Liberty International Airport, officials said. The strategy was devised after law enforcement authorities at Newark Liberty increased their scrutiny of flights originating in the Netherlands, where the vast majority of Ecstasy is produced in clandestine drug laboratories. By using circuitous routes through European countries close to the Netherlands that have good travel connections to Amsterdam, officials said, the North Jersey smuggling operation was hoping to disguise the origin of the contraband, officials said. After arriving in Newark with the Ecstasy strapped to their bodies, officials said, the couriers handed over the tablets to Rea, who distributed the drugs in New Jersey, New York State, and Connecticut. The joint investigation, which was conducted by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration, grew out of information developed by the Italian police as a result of a raid in May 2001. In that raid, police arrested four people at a hotel in the center of Milan and charged them with illegally possessing 45,000 Ecstasy tablets. The probe led to Rea, who was already under investigation by federal authorities in New Jersey, officials said. Rea was on probation on state charges of intending to distribute Ecstasy and steroids when the international smuggling operation began, officials said. After pleading guilty in that state case, Rea surrendered his passport to authorities, but then later applied for a new passport after reporting to the U.S. Passport Agency that his had been stolen, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Coyne said. Federal authorities said that Rea travels frequently to South America. He once owned a Lamborghini automobile, and participates in the no-holds-barred world of "ultimate fighting" competitions, said one official familiar with the case. Federal agents carried out the arrests Tuesday morning without incident, Coyne said. Cohen, 29, was arrested at Maplewood police headquarters. His one journey to Europe as an Ecstasy smuggler took place before he joined the police force, officials said. All nine people arrested in the case appeared Tuesday afternoon on conspiracy and Ecstasy smuggling charges before Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in Newark federal court. Those charged also included Catherine A. Giaquinto, 27, of Hasbrouck Heights, a yoga instructor and personal trainer; Steven J. Folenta, 29, of Lincoln Park; Matthew A. Jacobs, 29, of Garfield; Erik E. Kornacki, 27, of Fairfield; Raymond J. Raiani, 27, of Parsippany; Vincent J. Ricciotti, 31, of Clifton; and Michael J. Weachock, 29, of Bloomfield. If convicted, each faces up to 20 years in prison and $1 million in fines
