WAYNE COUNTY MAN GETS 9 1/2 YEARS IN PRISON IN DRUG PLOT

A Wayne County man has been sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison for his
role in a plot to bring hundreds of pounds of marijuana across the
border from Canada.

Jamahl Leonard, 29, of Sodus, the reputed ringleader of the plot in
the Rochester area, was sentenced today and received 114 months after
pleading guilty in May before U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer to
money laundering and conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

Leonard faced a prison term of 97 to 121 months under terms of a plea
agreement, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas E. Gregory.

Leonard was one of 17 people charged in October 2007 in a plot that
allegedly smuggled marijuana into New York through a Mohawk
reservation straddling the U.S.-Canada border.

Leonard, who was arrested after a raid at a home he rented on Marsh
Road in Pittsford, was charged with possessing more than 100 kilograms
of marijuana with the intent to distribute it, conspiracy to
distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana and money laundering.