Heroin dealer pleads guilty

In exchange for dismissal of one drug case, a Kalispell man has pleaded guilty to selling heroin.

Zane Root, 21, entered the plea Dec. 19 in Flathead District Court to felony criminal distribution of dangerous drugs.

That charge came after Root sold 0.3 grams of heroin for $120 to a person on Jan. 7, 2012.

A second case, dismissed as part of a plea deal, alleged that Root was supplying heroin to a man and woman who later were convicted on their own drug distribution charges.

Root also was charged in 2009 with three felony counts of criminal distribution of dangerous drugs for allegedly selling cocaine, ecstasy and oxycodone, but those charges eventually were transferred into Flathead Youth Court and all of Root’s juvenile case files have been sealed.

He faces between one year and life in prison when he is sentenced on Feb. 20, 2014.