BOSTON, July 29 /PRNewswire/ United States Attorney Donald K. Stern
announced that a Federal jury found FREDI ADEMAJ, also known as "Andres," an
Albanian national, formerly of 27 Amherst Street, Roslindale, guilty of all
counts of an indictment charging him with conspiring and aiding and abetting
the possession with intent to distribute cocaine. U.S. District Judge William
G. Young set sentencing for October 27, 1997. ADEMAJ faces a mandatory
minimum sentence of 10 years and maximum of life imprisonment.

Three of ADEMAJ's codefendants, Rexhep Gashi, Stefanos Meraklis, and Jose
Arce, were previously sentenced by Judge Young to terms of imprisonment of 12
and one half years, 5 years, and 2 and one half years respectively. Two
remaining defendants, David Gonsalves and Julio Suazo, are fugitives from
justice.

ADEMAJ was involved in a major cocaine distribution network that extended
from Boston to Florida. Federal agents seized over 6 kilograms of cocaine
from the defendant and his confederates during the course of the
investigation. Gashi, also an Albanian national who has served two prior
sentences for drug trafficking, transported four kilograms of cocaine on two
separate occasions from Florida to Boston in an automobile with a secret
compartment used to hide cocaine. The evidence established, among other
things, that ADEMAJ conducted negotiations with government agents in Boston,
helped make security arrangements for the exchange of the cocaine and the
money, and was present at the scene of both transactions.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted Heinrich, of Stern's Organized Crime Drug
Enforcement Task Force unit, prosecuted the case.

SOURCE U.S. Attorney's Office

CO: U.S. Attorney's Office

ST: Massachusetts

IN:

SU:

07/29/97 14:05 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com