Food wasn't the only thing on the menu at defunct Roslindale restaurant

A federal judge last week sentenced Iskender Kapllani, owner of the defunct Arbri Cafe on Belgrade Avenue, to 15 1/2 years in federal prison following his conviction for running a cocaine ring that distributed the drugs out of the restaurant.

Kapllani, a Dedham resident who came to the US as a refugee from Albania, was convicted in May along with a California man on charges they ran a cocaine-distribution ring, made up largely of Albanian-Americans and Albanian nationals, in which coke from California was shipped to Roslindale for sale.

According to the US Attorney's office in Boston:

At trial, prosecutors introduced kilograms of cocaine seized from Kapllani; recordings of Kapllani and other members of the conspiracy; video surveillance at the Arbri Café of meetings between Kapllani and members of the conspiracy; phone, travel and financial records showing that Kapllani, [fellow drug runner Tony] Bedini and other members of the conspiracy were in regular contact; drug-related intercepts from a wiretap on Kapllani’s cellphone; and the testimony of cooperating witnesses and defendants who described how for nearly two years, Bedini and his California-based partner shipped multiple kilograms of cocaine to Kapllani and other members of his crew for distribution at the Arbri Cafe.

This is Kapllani's second federal conviction - in 1997, he was found guilty of running what the feds said was "a multi-state effort to steal high-end automobiles, alter their VIN numbers, and re-sell them."

At his sentencing on the coke charges, Judge Richard Stearns noted how Kapllani came to the US:

I just add one additional thought, which is, to me, puzzling, that Mr. Kapllani, having been offered asylum by this country, chose to repay the generosity by poisoning his fellow citizens with the distribution of drugs. I think that, in a sense, almost aggravates the nature of the crime itself.