Apr.13, 2010, 07:46 p.m.

NEW HAVEN -- The sister of a Stamford drug kingpin was sentenced to more than four years in jail for laundering her brother's drug money and defrauding lenders.

Diana Gjuraj, 38, of Stamford -- who in her professional life made more than $100,000 a year in the employee staffing industry -- was sentenced to 51 months in prison Monday by Judge Janet Bond Arterton at New Haven federal court.

Gjuraj is the sister of Stamford resident Isni Gjuraj -- the lead supplier of a prolific narcotics ring at the Washington Village housing complex called the Goonies and the Washington Village Bloods.

In August, minutes after Isni Gjuraj, 29, was sentenced to 26 years and eight months for drug possession, dealing and attempted murder, and federal agents arrested Diana Gjuraj. As she was leaving the New Haven federal courthouse they charged her with conspiring to commit money laundering, aiding and abetting a narcotics business and fraud in loan and credit applications involving the purchases of homes at 251-255 Pearl Harbor St., Bridgeport and another at 236 Seaside Ave., Stamford.

"This is one of those unfortunate situations where a good person who struggles to overcome adversity in life has suffered a setback and she will overcome this and once again become a productive member of society," her attorney Francis O'Reilly said.

On Dec. 21, Diana Gjuraj pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of fraud in loan and credit applications.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Isni Gjuraj provided his sister with $70,000 in cash from narcotics dealing, which she deposited into several bank accounts and then wrote checks to make payments for her brother's expenses.

She also made false statements and filed a false income tax form in connection with her application for a $551,000 mortgage loan to buy the Seaside Avenue property in Stamford.

According to O'Reilly's sentencing memorandum, Diana Gjuraj was brought up in the Stamford projects and put herself through Catholic high school in Stamford. She and two other sisters and Isni were brought up by refugees from Kosovo.

Unlike her two sisters, at age 17 Diana Gjuraj decided to move out of her parents' home in the projects rather than be forced by her father into an arranged marriage, O'Reilly said in the memorandum.