BERLIN, N.H. (AP) – The president of the union representing workers in the pulp and paper mills says Fraser Papers has recalled more than a third of employees laid off in November.

Fraser Papers had laid off 114 hourly workers and 15 salaried employees. More than 30 of them are to return to make rolled pulp and stockpile it for spring mud season when retrieving pulp from forests is difficult, union President Ed DeBlois said Tuesday.

The mills closed in September 2001 when American Tissue filed for bankruptcy and more than 850 workers were laid off.

But former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, the state’s congressional delegation and local leaders aggressively sought a buyer, and Fraser Papers of Stamford, Conn., stepped in. The mills were reopened in June 2002.

Man pleads guilty to drug charges

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A 25-year-old Massachusetts man who pleaded guilty to charges he conspired to distribute cocaine in New Hampshire has been sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison.

U.S. Attorney Tom Colantuono said Cesar Perez of Lawrence was one of nine defendants indicted on drug charges in April. He will be on five years’ probation after he serves his prison sentence.

Colantuono said the conviction is the result of a two-year investigation which shut down a cocaine distribution ring.

31-year-old gets

2 years in prison

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A 31-year-old Wakefield man who pleaded guilty to a federal gun possession charge has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Charles Braid entered the plea in federal court. He also was placed on two years’ probation once he serves his prison sentence.

Gilford police found a .45 caliber pistol in Braid’s truck during the Hells Angels “World Run” week in the Lakes Region last summer.

Hit man sentenced

to life in prison

BOSTON (AP) – Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, a mobster who played a central role in a scandal that exposed the Boston FBI’s overly cozy relationship with its underworld informants, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for 10 murders.

Flemmi, 69, struck a deal with prosecutors in October to avoid the death penalty, admitting his role in a string of slayings committed when he was a boss in the Winter Hill Gang.

Flemmi and James “Whitey” Bulger were the leaders of the South Boston gang that ran loan-sharking, drug and gambling rackets. The two were also high-level FBI informants, providing the bureau with information on rivals in the Mafia.

Bulger remains a fugitive on the Ten Most Wanted list, fleeing after his former FBI handler tipped him off to the pending indictment that ensnared Flemmi.