CONTENTS: 1) MORE SMURF SIGHTINGS! 2) 'SMURFS' BUSTED IN DRUG-$$ SCAM 3) TRANSLATION TOOL ADDED TO ESMURFS.COM 4) IN THE WORKS 5) WE-RE TAKING A BREAK! 6) CHAT REMINDER ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) MORE SMURF SIGHTINGS! I spotted the Heunec plush Smurfs for sale in my local store at a gift shop called "DAPY." They had the large and medium Normal, Smurfette and Papa only. They were selling the Large normal for $29.99, I bought it for $19.99 when Spencers sold out. They also had 3 or 4 styles of figurines on cards for $1.99 each, discounted to $.98 on the sellout rack. So they are here and there I guess. I don't know who is importing them to the US, but all hope is not lost if you would like these wonderful plushes! 'SMURFS' BUSTED IN DRUG-$$ SCAM Here is a reprint from the Wednesday,June 28, 2000 issue of the New York Post! ------------------------------- By Devlin Barrett Seventeen suspects, including several city employees, were busted yesterday for laundering millions for an Ecuadoran drug cartel in a scheme masterminded by a former housing-department manager, authorities said. After the manager, Othniel Simpson, fled to Ecuador in January, his 20-year-old son, Lamont Simpson, took over the operation, investigators said. The ring members were charged with "smurfing" - using a large number of small-money wire transfers to sneak at least $5 million in drug profits back to the cartel. Smurfing is designed to get around bank rules that require anyone wiring $10,000 or more to fill out paperwork explaining where the money originated. The feds say the Simpsons got more than a dozen other people - many of them fellow Housing Preservation and Development and city employees - to make huge numbers of wire transfers from their personal accounts of amounts just under $10,000 over the past two years. The scheme fell apart when a bank officer noticed the suspicious transactions and alerted the feds, investigators said. The 17 defendants, including nine present and former city employees, were charged in court papers unsealed yesterday. Othniel Simpson and two other suspects in Ecuador are now fugitives, the FBI said. Those nabbed include Walter Isaac, an HPD property manager in The Bronx, Wayne Gladney, an environmental inspector for the Housing Authority, and Charles Jones, a Parks Department lifeguard, authorities said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Greenwald argued that Lamont Simpson should be held without bail. But Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck said the son could be released if he agreed to strict supervision and paid $15,000 up front and got two others to sign a $200,000 bond for him. The feds say Othniel was caught describing to an informant the drug dealers they worked for. "Simpson stated that the money being moved by the organizations is drug money and the person who controls the organization is located in Germany," the criminal complaint charges, adding "This person controls all the 'stuff' that goes through Panama." ----------------------------------- We never knew Smurfing could be so profitable! lol 30 TRANSLATION TOOL ADDED TO ESMURFS.COM Smurfing is a worldwide hobby, and I'm sure many of you have stumbled across web sites not in your native language, or been frustrated by foreign ID guides. Well, we have just added a powerful translation tool that can be used to convert text and even entire websites into your language! Please visit http://www.esmurfs.com/translation.html to try out this powerful new feature. Convert our (or any!) website into French, German, Spanish, Italian or Portuguese! You can also use the translator to translate foreign sites into English, or to translate descriptions from the German Smurf Katalog! This page also features an English translation of the preface to the German Smurf Katalog 2000, and a link to a German-to-English Dictionary of the most commonly used words and phrases which you can print out and tuck into your copy of the ID guide. Don't forget, we also have a collector checklist you can print out and use to track you collection! That is at http://www.esmurfs.com/figureslist.html. 4) IN THE WORKS We are nearing completion of our Smurf database! This latest project will allow you to search our huge inventory based on any keywords you choose! Request and get back only those listings which are related to your particular interest. This will make it much easier to locate items such as "Smurfette" pieces, or figurines related to categories such as Holidays, Sports, Seasons, professions etc. Browse for promos only, or variations, or Smurfs eating ice cream! Our "regular" catalog links will still be available for casual browsing, but when you know what you want, but aren't familiar with all of the Schleich #'s, this new feature will help you find what you want without wasting any time! Look for this functionality to be added to eSmurfs.com real soon!! 5) WE'RE TAKING A BREAK! We will be skipping the July 17th, 2000 edition of the Smurfy News eZine. We will publish again July 31, 2000! Please keep those e-mails coming! Much of the Smurfy News we publish here comes to us from our friends around the world…we always want to hear what's Smurfy in your corner of the world, let us know so we can share it with others! Just hit "reply" to contact us! 6) CHAT REMINDER Smurf Chat meets every other Tuesday from 7:00 PM EST to “whenever” and meets again tomorrow, Tuesday 7/4/00 in the chat room located at http://www.esmurfs.com/chat.html -Pete eSmurfs.com The "Smurfy News" is a free biweekly e-mail newsletter published by eSmurfs.com. Joining or leaving the list is voluntary, we cannot add or delete you! To subscribe to the Smurfy News send an e-mail to SmurfyNews-subscribe@listbot.com. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to SmurfyNews-unsubscribe@listbot.com. To view the Smurfy News archive, visit http://www.listbot.com/cgi-bin/subscriber?Act=view_archive&list_id=SmurfyNews Want to submit an article or information for publication in a future issue of the Smurfy News? Send it to esmurfs@esmurfs.com or hit reply now. All letters will be considered for publication unless the author requests otherwise. They may be edited for clarity and space, and we may print your first name and State or Country unless you request that we do not. All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, without the express written consent of the author. Use info contained herein at your own risk. Nothing in life is guaranteed. Let the buyer beware. A stitch in time gathers no moss. Oh, and SMURF ON!!