News Release
October 3, 2005
Contact: S/A Elizabeth Jordan
(212) 337-2906

Federal Jury Convicts Ecstasy Kingpin of Conspiracy To Import More Than $20 Million Worth Of Ecstasy From the Netherlands To The United States

JOHN P. GILBRIDE, the Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Field Division and MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that late Friday, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted HENK ORLANDO ROMMY, a/k/a "the Cobra", a Netherlands-based Ecstasy kingpin, of conspiracy to import more than $20 million worth of Ecstasy into the United States.

According to the evidence at trial, ROMMY was a powerful international narcotics trafficker who moved millions of dollars worth of cocaine, hashish and Ecstasy throughout Europe and into the United States. ROMMY, as demonstrated at trial, controlled Ecstasy laboratories in Holland and bragged that his laboratories produced the most potent Ecstasy. Trial evidence established that ROMMY conspired to bring more than one million Ecstasy pills to the United States in 2000, and that ROMMY participated in another 800,000 Ecstasy pill shipment in 2001. The Government also offered evidence at trial of ROMMY’s participation in a videotaped 2003 meeting in Bermuda, during which ROMMY agreed with an undercover DEA agent to bring 300,000 Ecstasy pills with a street value of approximately $6 million into New York City.

ROMMY was arrested in Spain in early 2004 and was extradited to New York to stand trial in January 2005.

ROMMY’s conviction carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’imprisonment. ROMMY is scheduled to be sentenced on January 5, 2006 by the Honorable JED S. RAKOFF, United States District Judge, who also presided over the trial.

Mr. GARCIA praised the investigative efforts of the DEA and thanked law enforcement officials in the Netherlands, Spain, and Bermuda for their assistance in the investigation, arrest and prosecution of this important international target.

Assistant United States Attorneys KEVIN R. PUVALOWSKI and SCOTT L. MARRAH are in charge of the prosecution.