Man Pleads Guilty to Cocaine Trafficking

BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Javier Mejias, 36, of Puerto Rico, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Arcara to conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. The charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, a $6,000,000 fine or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph M. Tripi, who is handling the case, stated that Mejias was a part of a large-scale cocaine trafficking organization that shipped kilograms of cocaine from Puerto Rico to drug suppliers in Buffalo, New York. On December 14, 2009, Mejais was arrested by FBI agents and NFTA Transit Police authorities at the Buffalo/Niagara International Airport while he was in possession of two kilograms of cocaine which Mejais was attempting to deliver to local suppliers. Twenty-six other persons were thereafter arrested in New Jersey, Puerto Rico and Buffalo as part of the overall investigation.

Mejias is the sixth defendant to be convicted in this case to date. The plea is the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James H. Robertson, the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Matthew Renneman, the Buffalo Police Department, under the direction of Commissioner Daniel Derenda, and the NFTA Transit Police under the direction of Chief George Gast.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 11, 2011 at 1 p.m. EST, in Buffalo, N.Y., in front of Judge Arcara.