Two Israeli men identified by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as some of the biggest players in the South Florida Ecstasy trafficking scene made historic initial appearances Monday at the federal courthouse in Miami.

Former Broward residents Meir Ben-David, 47, and Yosef Levi, 36, are the first Israelis extradited to face serious drug charges in the United States under the terms of a new treaty. The DEA says Ben-David and Levi were responsible for importing millions of dollars worth of the club drug, distributing it at nightclubs throughout South Florida as well to other Israeli dealers nationwide.

''These guys are huge,'' DEA Special Agent Joe Kilmer said. ``They got in on the Ecstasy market early. They were in on the ground floor in 1998-99, before Ecstasy was a major problem.''

In the past, Israel has refused to allow most of its citizens to be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges. In a few cases, Israel permitted its citizens to be tried in U.S. courts but required that anyone convicted here had to be sent back to Israel to serve their prison sentences.

Under extreme pressure from U.S. diplomatic and law enforcement allies, Israel adopted the new extradition policy in mid-2000. The new treaty came on the heels of several embarrassing, high-profile cases where accused murderers and drug dealers eluded prosecution for their stateside crimes by seeking refuge in the Middle East.

''To capture and actually bring two major Israeli Ecstasy traffickers to the United States is a tremendous victory,'' DEA Director Asa Hutchinson said in a statement. ``Our resolve to bring traffickers to justice doesn't stop at the border.''

Ben-David, formerly of Fort Lauderdale, coordinated the Ecstasy shipments from Europe -- primarily Amsterdam -- into South Florida, using human couriers who would carry it on their bodies and in their luggage as well as in parcels shipped to commercial mail-drops, according to the DEA.

1998 ARRESTS

Levi, formerly of Oakland Park, Pompano Beach and Aventura, distributed the drugs at various nightclubs as well as to other Israeli traffickers in the United States, the agency added.

Authorities started dismantling the organization in September 1998 after seizing 40,000 pills from a courier flying in to Miami International Airport. DEA grabbed another 30,000 pills from a Miami-bound courier in March 1999.

SEIZURES

In April 1999, agents set up a controlled delivery of 50,000 doses to a Fort Lauderdale mail drop used by Ben-David and Levy. Later that same month, agents seized a total of 75,000 pills from two couriers arriving on the same flight in Fort Lauderdale. In December 1999, they seized another 30,000 tablets from a storage warehouse in Davie.

Twenty-four people were indicted in February 2000 in connection with those five seizures; eighteen were convicted, six are fugitives.

Fearing that some of the defendants in the original case could implicate them as spearheading the ring, federal sources said Ben-David and Levi fled the U.S. shortly after the indictment was unsealed.

Ben-David and Levi were named in a separate indictment in October 2000. Three American co-defendants in the second case have already pleaded guilty and received sentences ranging from five years of probation to 30 months in prison.

If Ben-David and Levi are convicted, the government also intends to take a posh home in a beachside neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale that was purchased for $1.4 million in August 1999 by a Ben-David associate and then resold the following October for $1.3 million.

The government believes Ben-David purchased the property at 3015 NE 22 St. with drug proceeds.

The DEA says Israeli organized crime figures have controlled upwards of 70 percent of the worldwide market in the so-called ''feel-good'' drug. It produces euphoria, increased energy, increased sensual arousal and enhanced tactile sensations.

The profit margins are massive. Israeli traffickers can purchase the tablets, in bulk, for 25 cents to $1 apiece in Amsterdam and resell the same tablets in South Beach clubs for $15 to $25 each, authorities said.

OTHER CASES

Several Israelis have been implicated in separate club-drug indictments in the past two years in Brooklyn and Southern California. But the biggest name is still abroad.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Oded Tuito in 2001, charging him and 11 others with running the largest Ecstasy ring in the world. Tuito is believed to be in custody in Spain and fighting extradition.

DEA officials say Tuito is to the worldwide Ecstasy market what Colombian trafficker Fabio Ochoa was to cocaine.

Miami defense attorneys Ruben Oliva Jr., for Ben-David, and Jose Puig, for Levi, refused to say whether their clients intend to plead guilty and testify against others in pending U.S. cases.

Ben-David and Levi did not speak at Monday's appearance in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen T. Brown. Both men have temporarily agreed to remain behind bars until trial before U.S. District Judge Shelby Highsmith.