Federal Inmate Sentenced to 21 More Months in Prison for Conspiring to Distribute Synthetic Cannabinoids

PITTSBURGH – Nicholas Giammichele pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 21 months in prison for conspiring to distribute Schedule I synthetic cannabinoid controlled substances between 2017 and 2019, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

Giammichele, 35, was sentenced by United States District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan. Judge Ranjan also ordered Giammichele to serve six years of supervised release following his prison term. Giammichele was serving a prior federal prison sentence in Otisville, NY. when he committed the crime to which he pled guilty and for which he was sentenced. His 21-month prison sentence in this case was ordered to run consecutively to his prior prison sentence.

Assistant United States Attorney Craig W. Haller prosecuted this case on behalf of the United States.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the federal Bureau of Prisons, and the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General led the multi-agency investigation that also included the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Beaver County District Attorney’s Office, the Department of Homeland Security/Homeland Security Investigations, the Pittsburgh Police Department, the United States Marshals Service, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Munhall Police Department, the Robinson Township Police Department, the McKees Rocks Police Department, the Stowe Township Police Department, the Etna Police Department, and the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.

The investigation was funded by the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program (OCDETF). The OCDETF program supplies critical federal funding and coordination that allows federal and state agencies to work together to successfully identify, investigate, and prosecute major interstate and international drug trafficking organizations and other criminal enterprises.