NEW YORK CITY LAWYER FOUND GUILTY IN LARGEST MARIJUANA CULTIVATION OPERATION
EVER IN NEW ENGLAND

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-A New York City lawyer was found guilty
by a jury late yesterday in connection with the largest and longest running
indoor marijuana growing operation ever in New England.

Donald K. Stern, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts,
George Festa, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration
in New England, and Michael Lahey, Acting Chief of the Criminal
Investigative Division of the Internal Revenue Service, announced that
HERBERT B. DERMAN, age 67, a lawyer from New York City, and North Egremont,
Massachusetts, was found guilty after a three week jury trial of conspiracy
to cultivate more than 1,000 marijuana plants. The jury also found that
DERMAN'S residence and 200 acres of real property in North Egremont, MA,
isho be forfeited to the United States.

U.S. Attorney Stern stated: "This case involved the largest and longest
running indoor marijuana growing operation in the history of New England.
HERBERT DERMAN allowed his rural North Egremont, MA, land to be used to
operate a vast underground marijuana growing operation for over seven years."

According to evidence introduced at the trial, DERMAN conspired with Marcel
Rosenzweig, Richard Haber, Nicholas Pinto Edward Brennan, Marjorie Brennan,
Sabrina Brennan and others to grow over two hundred thousand marijuana
plants, first inside a huge underground bunker of DERMAN'S property in North
Egremont, MA, from 1983 to 1991, and then inside a barn on Rosenzweig's
property in Sandisfield, MA, from 1992 to 1995. During two court authorized
searches of Rosenzweig's property in August, 1995, the Drug Enforcement
Administration seized over 5,000 marijuana plants and over $1 million in
cash and gold.

The jury acquitted DERMAN on related money laundering charges.

Since the indictment was first returned in the fall of 1995, Rosenzweig died
of natural causes, and eleven co-conspirators pled guilty to charges related
to the marijuana growing conspiracy.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor scheduled DERMAN'S sentencing
for October 28, 1998. DERMAN faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment
with a minimum mandatory term of 10 years.

The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and
the Western Massachusetts Narcotics Task Force and is being prosecuted by
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ariane D. Vuono and Kevin O'Regan in Stern's
Springfield office.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett