A 27-year-old Whitefish man has pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. The charges allege Kenneth Daniel Chrestensen was part of a drug trafficking business that moved dozens of pounds of meth from California to Flathead County.

Chrestensen is currently detained and faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and could be sentenced to life. He also faces a $10 million fine and five years supervised release. Sentencing has been set for Oct. 26.

Chrestensen appeared before U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on July 19 in Missoula.

According to a District Court news release, several state and federal agencies, including the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force, conducted investigations in August 2011 after receiving reliable tips that several Flathead residents were trafficking pound quantities of meth from California to Flathead County.

 A confidential source told investigators that Chrestensen was part of the meth trafficking business. The informant said they received about 39 pounds of meth from Chrestensen between the spring of 2010 and October 2011. On about 20 separate occasions, the informant alleged that they received between 4 and 8 ounces of meth from Chrestensen or his employee. The source said another person who was distributing meth for Chrestensen would often deposit money from those sales into Chrestensen’s bank account.

Another informant told investigators they worked for Chrestensen and another person as the “muscle” to assist with drug debt collections. The informant said they were paid about 35-50 percent of what was collected from the traffickers with either cash, merchandise or meth.