FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   CRM

MAY 9, 2008   (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV   TDD (202) 514-1888

ECSTASY IMPORTER SENTENCED TO 121 MONTHS' IMPRISONMENT

San Francisco - United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced that Yacov "Jacob" Yida was sentenced today to 121 months' imprisonment for conspiracy to import, importation, and smuggling of a 300 pound shipment containing approximately 500,000 ecstasy pills from Paris, France to California. The half a million pills had a street value of approximately $15 million. Judge Charles R. Breyer was the sentencing judge.

According to court documents, in May 2000, Yida and others arranged for the importation of the above-shipment by creating false shipping documents and then routing the shipment through other co-conspirators who had the ability at the time to bring in shipments without detection by law enforcement. After receiving a tip from a confidential source, federal agent created a fictitious business and directed a cooperating source to provide the name of the business to Yida's co-conspirator . When the shipment arrived in the United States, it was intercepted by federal agents and a controlled delivery was made. Federal agents observed Yida at the meet location and thereafter attempted to arrest him. Yida fled the country to Mexico where he remained a fugitive until extradited in 2005. Further information about the charges against the defendant is available at the links noted below.

Yida was convicted of the above offenses by a jury in December 2007. The prosecution is the result of a multi-year investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of International Affairs.

James T. Chou and Andrew Caputo are the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted the case with the assistance of paralegal Kim Hopkins and legal technician Karem Alvarez.

Further Information:

Case No: CR 00-0274 CRB

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges' calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court's website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Joshua Eaton at (415) 436-6958 or by email at Josh.Eaton@usdoj.gov.