A California man will spend more than eight years in federal prison for trafficking drugs into the Flathead Valley.

Salvador Andaya Curiel Jr., 28, was sentenced Friday by Judge Dana Christensen in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Curiel was ordered to serve 96 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for one felony count of distribution of methamphetamine.

Curiel also was ordered to complete the Bureau of Prisons’ 500-hour drug treatment program. Christensen recommended that Curiel be placed at a prison facility on Terminal Island in California so he could be close to family. Federal prison guidelines stipulate that individuals must complete more than 85 percent of a sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

Once released, Curiel will not be allowed to own firearms and will have to give a DNA sample to authorities that will be put in a federal database for use if Curiel is accused of any other crimes.

On supervised release, Curiel can be drug tested as often as his probation officer wishes, up to one drug test per day, if deemed necessary.

Curiel’s case was resolved as part of a plea agreement in which three other charges alleging drug distribution were dropped. He pleaded guilty to one count.

According to court documents, Curiel instructed an associate, Kenneth Chandler, to collect a $4,000 drug debt at a home in Kalispell on Feb. 6, 2014. Chandler was observed giving the debtor one ounce of methamphetamine and one ounce of cocaine at the end of the exchange.

The same person then bought another $4,000 worth of methamphetamine in Kalispell on Feb. 14, 2014.

A third buy was arranged for eight ounces of methamphetamine and eight ounces of cocaine on Feb. 25, 2014. Curiel was arrested at the meeting spot at a gas station.

After his arrest, Curiel confessed to trafficking large quantities of heroin, meth, and cocaine into the Flathead Valley from California in the three months leading up to his arrest.

Eight ounces of methamphetamine and eight ounces of cocaine were found in a search of the vehicle. A search of his motel room in Kalispell found another seven ounces of methamphetamine.

Curiel’s co-defendant, Chandler, 35, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison in June 2015, with a concurrent state sentence for trafficking drugs.

Chandler is currently serving his time in Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge.

Reporter Megan Strickland may be reached at 758-4459 or by email at mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.