What attracts Israelis to ecstasy, officials say, is simple opportunity. In Israel, authorities started to notice the drug in the mid-1980s, as it was gaining popularity in Europe. It is a drug that gets around in parties. The mildly hallucinogenic drug gained popularity among Israeli young adults who were fresh from the army. Soon after, Israelis started manufacturing and distributing the drug, first in Israel and then abroad, Mr. Hefetz said.
Laws banning the primary materials used in labs to synthesize the drug also are looser.
Once establishing themselves as distributors in Europe in the 1980s, Mr. Abramovsky said, Israelis also brought in chemistry experts from Israel, who got in on the manufacturing end. Israelis have a large presence in the diamond trade, in which carrying small, expensive cargo across borders is a valued skill. Unlike many other drugs, the little MDMA pills take up little space and carry a huge profit. The Israelis also had good connections to Russian criminal gangs, which often serve as the Israelis' partners in the ecstasy business. American officials started noticing the growing presence of Israelis on the ecstasy scene in the late 1990s.