TWO QUEENS MEN CONVICTED OF SELLING HIGH-GRADE HEROIN TO UNDERCOVER POLICE OFFICER AND CONSPIRING TO BRING ADDITIONAL HEROIN VALUED AT $120,000 FROM PAKISTAN TO NEW YORK; EACH FACES LIFE IN PRISON

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the conviction of two Queens residents on charges of selling $7,000 worth of high-grade Pakistani heroin to an undercover police officer and conspiring to buy additional heroin - - valued at more than $120,000 - - in Pakistan, bring it to New York and to sell it.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendants Rashid Khan, 38, of 51-12 90th Street, Flushing, and Abidali Mian Haji, 46, of 24-16 31st Street, Astoria, were convicted of selling over two ounces of 90-percent-pure heroin, worth $7,000, to an undercover officer of January 2, 1997 in the parking lot of a Pathmark supermarket in Ozone Park.

District Attorney Brown said, "According to the trial testimony the defendants drove to the location on Atlantic Avenue between 92nd and 93rd Streets and met the undercover officer who bought the package of heroin for $7,000. Thereafter, the defendants agreed on a plan to obtain 1,000 grams of heroin in Pakistan to resell in New York."

On March 7, 1997 Rashid Khan boarded a Pakistani International Airlines plane for Lahore, Pakistan, and once in Pakistan, he traveled to the Northwest region of the country, in and around Quetta, and purchased heroin. He was arrested in Pakistan with the drugs on April 29th, 1997 but a sum of money was paid to authorities and he was released. He returned to New York in June, 1997.

The defendants were found guilty of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree and Conspiracy in the Second Degree. They each face a life term in prison when they are sentenced in November by Supreme Court Justice Randall Eng who presided at the four week jury trial.

Assistant District Attorneys Mark Katz and Philip Anderson of the District Attorney's Narcotics Investigation Bureau under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Gregory Pavlides headed by Assistant District Attorney Wilbert LeMelle, was assigned to prosecute the case.