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Montreal man admits to role in large-scale, cross-border marijuana smuggling ring
A Canadian underworld figure tied to a millennial consortium of outlaw bikers and gangsters pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Tuesday to his role in an organization that smuggled tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana into the United States.
Mihale Leventis, 44, of Montreal, known as “Big Mike” and “Rookie,” pleaded guilty to conspiring to import a controlled substance during an appearance via Skype before U.S. District Judge Mae D’agostino in Albany.
In a plea agreement, Leventis admitted he was personally accountable for importing 350 kilograms of marijuana into the country in a large-scale ring that moved its product from at least 2007 to 2009 through the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation onto Frontier Road in the hamlet of Churubusco in Clinton County.
It said Leventis kept track of the organization’s drug trafficking proceeds. It said drivers for Leventis’ organization, using walkie-talkies and cellphones sometimes supplied by Leventis, often moved marijuana in one vehicle while other ring members drove separate cars to block or scout law enforcement.
“The organization smuggled large quantities of marijuana into the United States that was then distributed to the organization’s customers in Boston, New York City, and elsewhere,” Leventis’ plea agreement states. “The defendant’s role in the organization was to coordinate the movement of marijuana from sources of supply in Montreal and elsewhere to the border of the United States and Canada, including in the areas of the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation.”
In court papers, prosecutors said the organization “smuggled thousands of pounds of marijuana into the United States and millions of dollars back into Canada”
and that the organization was “involved in violence as well.”
In 2012, Canadian law enforcement charged Leventis as a leader in a drug trafficking sweep of 120 defendants called Operation Loquace, which involved associates of Irish organized crime, the Hells Angels and other groups across the border, according to reports in the Toronto Star and Montreal Gazette. The Toronto Star reported that Leventis was associated with The Wolfpack Alliance, which it described as a multiracial group of mostly millennial criminals active in
the Toronto area and other Canadian cities. The newspaper reported that Project Loquace targeted a ring that was importing up to 75 kilos of cocaine a week into Canada through connections to Mexican and South American drug cartels.
At the time of his arrest, the Montreal Gazette reported, Leventis was residing in a luxury condominium next to the city ’s Old Port, built by a real estate developer, Tony Magi, with support from Vito Rizzuto, the Mafia boss of Montreal. The building attracted celebrities and professional hockey players.
Magi was murdered in 2017. News reports in Canada also said Leventis’ brother, Anastasios Leventis, was shot to death in Toronto in broad daylight in January 2017.
Leventis’ conviction in the
2012 case was tossed in June by a Quebec judge who determined that prosecutors took too long to disclose evidence, the Montreal Gazette reported.
On Tuesday, Leventis’ Burlington, Vt.-based attorney, Mark Oettinger, told the Times Union that because Leventis spent several years in prison in Canada for the case that was tossed, he expects his client to get credit for time served at his Dec. 17 sentencing.
Oettinger said in court papers that Leventis, who was extradited to the U.S. earlier this month, would live with his parents in Montreal if released. He said his client has extensive experience in the restaurant industry.
Leventis, who faces a range under sentencing guidelines of 46 to 57 months, waived the right to appeal any sentence of 71 months or less.