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Montgomery pleads guilty
04/07/2008 07:35 - (SA)
Virginia - Former US track and field star Tim Montgomery pleaded guilty to heroin distribution charges at a federal court hearing on Thursday.
Montgomery, who was once dubbed "the world's fastest man," appeared briefly before American judge Jerome Friedman.
The Olympic gold medallist was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of over 100 grams of heroin.
Already serving a four-year prison sentence for his role in a check-fraud conspiracy, Montgomery faces a minimum of five years in prison on the heroin charge. His sentencing is set for October 10.
Montgomery also could be fined up to $2m and faces at least four years of supervised release.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Montgomery sold 111 grams of heroin for nearly $8 500 to an undercover DEA informant.
Four meetings between Montgomery and the informant were videotaped and recorded by the DEA.
Pleaded guilty
Despite being led into Norfolk's US District Courthouse in handcuffs, Montgomery was smiling and laughing with his lawyer James Broccoletti.
But there is very little for Montgomery, 33, to smile about these days. He pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan in April 2007 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of bank fraud in a counterfeit check scheme that also embroiled fellow Olympic champion sprinter and former partner Marion Jones.
Thirteen months later, Montgomery received a jail sentence of three years, 10 months for his role in the scheme.
Montgomery retired from track and field in December 2005 in the wake of receiving a two-year doping ban, not for failing a drugs test but on the basis of an admission he gave about his use of steroids in 2001 in testimony to the 2003 Balco investigation.
His ban from the sport also brought with it an order to return his Olympic medals, a gold he won in the 400m relay in Sydney in 2000 and a silver in the same event at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Montgomery's world record-breaking 100m run of 9.78 seconds, set in Paris in 2002, also was erased from the historical lists.
- AFP
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