A former world-champion mountain biker is facing 40 years in prison after she was caught with an Everest-size pile of pot during a federal drug bust upstate, officials said yesterday.
Missy “The Missile” Giove, 37, was nabbed with 400 pounds of marijuana, which she received from a confidential informant at the Hilton Hotel in Albany on Tuesday, according to a criminal complaint.
Giove and an accomplice, Eric Canori, 30, were nabbed by Drug Enforcement Agency officials after they hauled the massive mound of pot around the capital area, the complaint says.
“Drug trafficking can lead you downhill fast,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge John P. Gilbride. “DEA and our law-enforcement partners successfully put the breaks on this drug-trafficking organization.”
After nabbing Giove, the DEA agents searched Canori’s home in Wilton and found $1 million in cash hidden in a duffel bag and shoe boxes. They also found an additional 30 to 50 pounds of pot, a money counter, a heat sealer, piles of plastic bags and nine cellphones, authorities said.
Giove and Canori each face a maximum of 40 years in federal prison and a $2 million fine.
The bust went down after Giove’s trailer full of pot was intercepted in Illinois by state troopers, who found it being driven by a woman named Tamara Geagley, 26. They busted Geagley and informed the DEA, which put another person behind the wheel and continued on a trip to Albany.
Giove, who retired from biking in 2003, earned notoriety in the 1990s by wearing a dead piranha slung around her neck while competing. She won the world championship in 1994, the World Cup season titles in 1997 and 1998, and national titles from 1999 to 2001.