LOS ANGELES – The head of an urban lifestyle magazine and the former co-host of the defunct Playboy TV show “Buckwild” were among 11 people indicted on charges of using aspiring models to smuggle Ecstasy tablets from Europe, authorities said.

Tens of thousands of pills, selling on the street for as much as $60 each, were smuggled into Los Angeles and New York in 2000 and 2001, authorities alleged in court documents.

“That translates into huge profits that are often funneled back into further criminal activity,” said Kevin Kozak, acting special agent in charge at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Los Angeles.

Ronald Joseph Samuel, editor-in-chief of UNleashed Magazine, and Kenneth Cecil Francis III were charged Monday with conspiracy to import and distribute Ecstasy and money laundering.

Samuel, 33, also was charged with operating a criminal enterprise.

Samuel pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. A court appearance for Francis was continued. Both were held without bail.

Attorney Barry O. Bernstein, who represents Francis, declined to comment.

A call to UNleashed Magazine, based in Calabasas, was not immediately returned.

Federal prosecutors contend the conspiracy five years ago involved recruiting couriers, some of whom were associated with Samuel’s magazine, to travel to Belgium and the Netherlands to pick up packages containing as many as 65,000 Ecstasy tablets.

Francis, 37, is a freelance producer whose show, “Buckwild,” combined hip-hop and nudity. Production stopped in 2004 and “we have not had any business dealings with him since that time,” Playboy Entertainment Group spokeswoman Jay Jay Nesheim said.

Francis was arrested Friday at Los Angeles International Airport while returning from a trip to Germany with rapper and former “Buckwild” co-host Snoop Dogg and his entourage, Kozak said.