Major drug dealer enters guilty plea

A 27-year-old Whitefish man pleaded guilty July 19 during U.S. District Court proceedings in Missoula to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

Daniel Chrestensen now faces 10 years to life in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $10 million.

According to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice, law enforcement received reliable information in March of 2011 that several Kalispell residents were trafficking pound quantities of meth from California to Flathead County.

In August of that year, the Northwest Drug Task Force, the Montana Division of Criminal Investigations and Homeland Security Investigations began conducting a joint investigation into those people, including Chrestensen.

A confidential source told investigators about receiving roughly 39 pounds of meth from Chrestensen between spring 2010 and October 2011, and that on the night of their arrest in October, the source had just visited Chrestensen and received half a pound of meth.

A second confidential source told investigators about making several trips to California to secure meth from Chrestensen. The meth was brought back to Flathead County. The informant also described an occasion when Chrestensen was supposed to receive a large shipment of meth from California and deliver it to the first source.

A third confidential source told investigators about working for Chrestensen as an enforcer to collect drug debts from distributors and customers. One source reportedly would deposit large sums of money into Wells Fargo bank accounts in Montana at the direction of Christensen.

The informants said they were paid roughly 35 to 50 percent of what they were able to collect, either with cash, merchandise or meth.