L'Houssain Mahdiou, a 37 year old Moroccan immigrant living in Amsterdam, pleaded guilty to mailing drugs from Amsterdam and setting up drug buys over the Internet to the United States and to a Gainesville buyer. Mahdiou drew a 135 month sentence, just over 11 years in federal prison, from Judge William O'Kelley.
According to the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Hulsey, thousands of illegal pills were distributed in the U.S.
"It was a large case," Hulsey said. This spanned a long period of time, it spanned a lot of geography. The source was in the Netherlands but drugs were being distributed to various parts of the U.S., the Southeast, the Northern District of Georgia, all the way out to the West Coast and places in between."
Hulsey said the drugs distributed were largely MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy and LSD.
According to the U.S. Attorney's office the case was code-named "Operation Dutch Connection" and it began in 2008 with a falling out over money with Mahdiou's Gainesville drug connection Nicholas Albano lll, who attempted suicide when federal Drug Enforcement Agents and Postal Inspectors tried to arrest him.
Albano agreed to cooperate with investigators, also pleading guilty and drawing a 96 month federal prison term from Judge O'Kelley.
According to the U.S. Attorney, he turned Mahdiou in after he posed as an informant, calling himself 'John the Dutchman', and implicated Albano.
Defense attorney Chris Adams' objections and arguments concerning the evidence against Mahdiou and how they would affect sentencing guidelines were largely overruled by Judge O'Kelley, who said that Mahiou 'was a business man and in this to make a profit'.
Adams questioned drug quantities and whether Mahdiou's large drug inventory, found in his Amsterdam apartment, was all being shipped to the U.S. Judge O'Kelley decided it easily could have been.
As to how his sentence would be considered in the Netherlands Court, Judge O'Kelley said he would impose his sentence and leave the rest of it to the 'executive branch'.
Hulsey said 'all we can do is what we do here.'
"He will be transferred back to the Netherlands where his sentence will be converted and a judge there will sentence him. I think the sentence of the court here should play some role in the sentence he gets in the Netherlands, nevertheless he could receive a different sentence than the one he got here today."
Judge Kelly also fined Mahdiou $3,000 after Adams argued that $20,000 was excessive because Mahdiou was indigent. Mahdiou, when given the chance to comment, apologized and said he was ashamed.
Convicted drug smuggler L'Houssain Mahdiou, in his orange prison jump suit, leaves Gainesville Federal Court in handcuffs
(L-R) Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Hulsey with U.S. Attorney Public Affairs Officer Patrick Crosby
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