December 22, 2004

PRESS RELEASE

FORMER BIG DIG TUNNEL WORKER SENTENCED
IN TWO FEDERAL CASES
FOR COCAINE DEALING ON THE JOB AND
CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT ARMORED CAR ROBBERY

Boston, MA... A Holbrook man was sentenced today by two federal judges in connection with separate convictions - one for distributing cocaine while at his Big Dig work site in South Boston and the second for conspiring to commit an armored car robbery in 1998.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in New England; Kenneth W. Kaiser, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New England; and John McGlynn, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Regional Office of the Department of Labor, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, announced today that JOHN T. FIDLER, age 39, of Holbrook, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole, Jr. to 2 years and 3 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. This sentence follows FIDLER's January 22, 2004, guilty plea to three counts of possession with intent to distribute, and distribution of cocaine.

At the January plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that, had the case proceeded to trial, the Government's evidence would have proven that, on three dates during the summer/fall of 2000, FIDLER sold cocaine to a cooperating witness working with the DEA. On each of those dates, the prosecutor told the Court, the cooperating witness went to a Big Dig site on the Fort Point Channel in South Boston, near Summer Street, where FIDLER (a member of Local Union 88, the Tunnel Workers' Union) was working. According to the prosecutor, FIDLER met with the cooperating witness on the site and sold the cooperating witness cocaine.

In a second sentencing hearing held today, U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris sentenced FIDLER to 6 years in prison, to be served concurrently with the sentence imposed by Judge O'Toole. The sentence was the result of FIDLER's August 20, 2004, guilty plea to one count of being a felon in possession of firearms and one count of conspiracy to affect commerce by robbery.
At the August plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that, had the case proceeded to trial, the evidence would have proven that in October of 1998, FIDLER conspired to rob an armored car as it made a delivery in Medway, Massachusetts. The members of the group ultimately decided not to commit the robbery on that date but instead to postpone it to another time.

FIDLER also pleaded guilty to possessing a Plainfield Machine .30 caliber carbine rifle, a Sturm-Ruger 9 mm handgun, and a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun, along with various rounds of ammunition. At the time he possessed the firearms, FIDLER was a previously convicted felon. Federal law prohibits previously convicted felons from possessing firearms or ammunition.

The cases were investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Labor, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations. The cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel E. Hershfang in Sullivan's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit and Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Richardson in Sullivan's Major Crimes Unit.

Press Contact: Samantha Martin, (617) 748-3139