http://www.nydailynews.com/02-25-200...p-422106c.html
BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
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A drug dealer who helped the feds take down a vicious crew of Israeli mobsters says he has been bounced from the witness protection program because he detailed his life story in an upcoming tell-all book.
Ron Gonen went into hiding 17 years ago after his cooperation helped authorities end the bloody reign of Israeli mobsters who carried out contract killings in Brooklyn, gold heists in Manhattan's Diamond District and lucrative cocaine deals across the nation.
Earlier this month, Gonen says U.S. marshals summoned him to a rare meeting near his home and told him they were cutting him loose.
He says they were upset about the book that tells his story,
"Blood & Volume," which will be released next month.
"I'd become vulnerable," Gonen said.
The Marshals Service, which does not divulge details about anyone in witness protection, declined to comment.
Gonen, 58, said he's concerned about losing his federal security blanket because of the recent drive-by shooting of his drug-dealing pal Ran Ephraim, who was killed Feb. 1 in Tel Aviv.
Ephraim, like Gonen, testified against his murderous cohorts.
"I'm the next on the food chain," Gonen said.
Gonen was a globe-trotting cocaine dealer for a group that made a failed attempt to rival the city's Italian Mafia, during a two-year span in the late 1980s.
Mostly they just ended up killing one another.
In 1989, smuggler Michael Markowitz was shot three times in the back of the head and found dead in his car in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
The following year, gang leader Johnny Attias was shot twice in the back and bled to death outside the Sea Dolphin diner in Brooklyn, a popular spot among his Israeli crew.
When the killers were caught, they ratted on one another.
"It's almost comical how quickly they double-crossed one another," says Dave Copeland, who wrote "Blood & Volume" after answering an advertisement that Gonen placed on the Internet looking for someone to pen his life story about two years ago.
Ephraim was the third member of the former gang to be slain in recent years.
In 2003, Israel (Alice) Mizrahi was killed by a remote-controlled car bomb in Israel. Mizrahi had returned to his homeland after serving a 12-year sentence for drug smuggling in the U.S.
Gonen, meanwhile, lives in an undisclosed location.
Before emigrating to the U.S, he says he was a master safe cracker in Europe, working alone on three or four heists each year.
When he arrived in New York, he jumped into the city's lucrative cocaine trade, he said.
While in hiding, he has dabbled in real estate and car sales, but has had trouble paying the bills for him and his estranged wife, who lives in a separate apartment.
Gonen said he hopes the book will lead to a movie and a big payday.
"I just hope that my past might provide for my future," he said.
Originally published on February 25, 2007
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