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Thu 18 Jun, 12:53 pm UTC

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Melissa ‘Missy’ Giove facing prison

By Matthew Cole

Former professional downhill mountain bike rider Melissa ‘Missy’ Giove (37) and Eric Canori (30) have been arrested on charges of conspiring to possess and distribute almost 400 pounds of marijuana.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers found the marijuana, along with over US$1million and packing material at 22 Preserve Way, Saratoga Springs, NY.

If found guilty, Giove and Canori could face up to 40 years in jail and a fine of up to $US2million.

A DEA Special Agent told The Saratogian newspaper: "(Drug) trafficking can lead you downhill fast. From championship mountain biking to street level drug dealing, the only reason people turn to drug trafficking is to make a profit from the sale of illicit narcotics.

“DEA and our law enforcement partners successfully put the brakes on this drug trafficking organisation and put them out of business."

Giove was one of the sport’s first female stars, and won a record 14 NORBA downhill comps, two World Cup overall wins and took the world championship title in 1994. She retired from racing in 2003.

Andrew Dodd, Features Editor on Mountain Biking UK magazine said: “Missy Giove was in your face, full of attitude and made the sport look amazing. Her full-on approach to racing turned previously mundane woman’s racing into action packed madness.”

User Comments

There are 13 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 13 of 13 comments

  • Great words from the DEA agent there. Comedy gold.

  • If she was a world champ DHer, who revolutionised the sport, why would she need anymore money she must be minted anyway?

  • Probably wasn't any money in the womens DH when she was winning it. Early pioneers rarely make their fortune, they just set the scene for the (later) large sponsorship deals.

  • +1 bendertherobot

    More spin doctors, fewer beat bobbies - just what the world needs.

  • Didn't her former teammate, Myles Rockwell, also get busted for marijuana a few years back?

    We were talking about the old days in the shop a few weeks ago and mentioned that she fell off the face of the earth after about 2002... knock on wood.

  • Well if they would leagalize the stupid marijuana then she could have opened a legit place of business and continued on with her life. Now we have two more people filling up space in a stupid prison, while at the same time 1,000,000,000 plus people in the world are still buying and smoking it... Foolish, foolish foolish government thinking...

  • The early mountain bike trails were built so we would have a place to take a "safety break".

    "...downhill fast." was the escape route.

    [FREE MISSY]

  • 40 years - totally ridiculous.

  • too bad! best of luck :}!

    and i agree knobby..

    i grew up in the infamous imerald triangle (Humboldt county california) and have seen so many people terrorized by C.A.M.P. and the DEA and had there lives ruined. Herb has viable place in the economy and is a good medicine if used for a period of time untill you gain overstanding of it and move on.

    feds need to go after more important things...

    !!!!heres an idea!!!! with all the money they spend busting people why dont we just send drug adicts a daily ration and keep them of the streets. they would sit around and wait for the post man to come instead of robing working folks like us and if they dont sign for there package 3 days in a row you send the coroner out to pick up there dead ass..people are going to use drugs all we can do is educate them to the hazards and hope for the best.

  • Regardless of Missy's fall from grace she's a fu(king legend.

  • Even if pot was legal, people would still be doing this to avoid paying taxes to the government. People don't keep hundreds of pounds of it and a million in cash if this is just a hobby.

  • FREE MISSY!!!

    FREE THE WEED!!!

  • what a boot

  • 1

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