Toronto, Canada - Convicted Drug Trafficker Shot In Hotel Elevator

Toronto, Canada - A man sentenced in New York for masterminding an ecstasy smuggling ring using Orthodox Jews to get millions of pills through the world's airports was shot three times in an elevator of a Toronto luxury hotel after a drug deal went awry.

When Toronto police were called to the 1,000-roon waterfront Westin Harbour Castle, they found one man bleeding from gunshot wounds, another who had been handcuffed by his assailants and a woman who was with them. Four kilograms of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $400,000, hidden in an ice dispenser, were also uncovered.
Sean Erez, a 36-year-old Quebec man, was shot in the stomach and legs, investigators say. He survived, but has been charged with drug trafficking. Mr. Erez, an Israeli-Canadian, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn, NY in 2001 to conspiracy to import ecstasy into the U.S. He admitted he recruited young Orthodox Jews to smuggle more than a million pills to the U.S. from 1998 to 1999, the pills were hidden under the Chasidic hats.