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SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - A Canadian man has been sentenced to prison for the rest of his life for running a marijuana ring that sold more than $10 million worth of the drug a year for four years.

U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue imposed the mandatory life sentence Thursday on Michael C. Woods, 45, known by members of the ring as "Big Boss Man."

The life sentence was mandatory because a jury convicted Woods in August of being one of two kingpins in a continuing criminal enterprise that had revenues of more than $10 million a year.

Woods' co-defendant, Gaetan Dinelle, is scheduled to be sentenced next week. They're both from Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.

Woods' lawyer, Albert Millus, argued in court papers that the sentence was unfair and amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. He cited the nation's changing attitude toward marijuana.

"The country is in the midst of a national movement involving the legalization of marijuana," Millus wrote in a sentencing memorandum. He noted that 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized the drug in some way.

"A life sentence for marijuana distribution, in light of these trends, unaccompanied by violence, would be patently cruel and inhuman," Millus wrote.

The ring moved marijuana from Canada through the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian reservation in northern New York, down Interstate-81 through Syracuse and into wide distribution across the east coast, Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Eurenius said. The ring moved more than 22,000 pounds of marijuana from April 2005 to February 2008.

Much of the marijuana went to a distributor in Boston, who testified that he bought $20 million of it and re-sold it mostly to the student and art community, according to court papers.

During the trial, witnesses testified that Woods got marijuana from people in Canada and with Dinelle smuggled across the border where the drug was stored at Akwesasne before being driven by couriers selected and supervised by Woods.

Before the trial, the U.S. government extradited 15 people, including Woods and Dinelle, from Canada in the largest use of the extradition treaty between the two countries in a single case, according to federal prosecutors.

The case was investigated primarily by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, but also by Homeland Security, Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, New York State Police, Massachusetts State Police, Warren County Sheriff's Office, New Hampshire State Police Laboratory, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.