Montreal Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Import a Controlled Substance

 ALBANY, NEW YORK – Mihale Leventis, a/k/a “Rookie,” a/k/a “Big Mike,” age 44, of Montreal, Quebec, pled guilty yesterday to conspiring to import marijuana into the United States.

The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), New York Division.

As part of his guilty plea, Leventis admitted that from 2007 to 2009, he worked with a drug trafficking organization operating in Quebec, the Northern District of New York, and elsewhere to smuggle large quantities of marijuana from Canada into the United States for distribution to the organization’s customers. Leventis admitted that he coordinated the movement of marijuana from the organization’s suppliers in Canada to the U.S.-Canadian border so that it could be smuggled into the United States, and that he kept track of the organization’s proceeds.

Leventis’s guilty plea follows his extradition from Canada. 

United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino will sentence Leventis on December 17, 2020.  He faces up to 20 years in prison, and a fine up to $1 million.  A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

This case was investigated by the DEA and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Kopita.  Leventis was extradited to the United States with assistance from the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.