Heroin dealer Joel Milanowski is glad to have his drug enterprise shut down by police so he can go to prison and be done with it.

The 31-year-old Rathdrum man was sentenced this week in Coeur d’Alene.

“I agree with the prosecutor 100 percent,” Milanowski told the court Tuesday after pleading guilty to two felony drug charges. “I don’t deny anything.”

Milanowski was sentenced for one count each of possession of heroin and methamphetamine with the intent to deliver. Each charge carries a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence, but First District Judge Cynthia K.C. Meyer agreed to retain jurisdiction of the case for up to a year as part of a plea agreement. The deal Milanowski agreed to calls for six years in prison on both charges with three years fixed.

That means Milanowski will attend a prison rehabilitation program, which will determine whether he can be placed on probation. If he fails the program, or if he doesn’t comply with the rules of probation, he could serve the entire prison time.

That’s something deputy prosecutor Stan Mortensen wanted to be clear Milanowski understood.

Mortensen berated Milankowski for trafficking heroin and methamphetamine and for the notion that addiction might be used to excuse his behavior.

“He is a drug dealer,” Mortensen said. “He was injecting poison into this community.”

Milanowski must know, Mortensen said, that he received a sweet deal, and that if he fails the rider or probation, he will go to prison.

“He could be doing his 10 years,” Mortensen said. “He wouldn’t get out until he was 41 years old.”

Milanowski, of Spokane, was arrested in January by Rathdrum police, who found almost two ounces of heroin and methamphetamine in the trunk of the 1995 Cadillac El Dorado he drove into the IGA parking lot around 2 a.m. on a Thursday morning. Police also found syringes, baggies and a drug scale as well as $1,690 in cash, most of it in $20 and $100 bills.

Questionable police procedure at the time of the arrest was a bargaining chip that led to the favorable plea agreement, public defender Tyler Naftz told the court.

Either way, Milanowski was glad it happened.

“I’m thankful that this happened,” Milankowski said. “That the officers did pull me over that night.”

He looks forward to the treatment prison offers, he said.

Meyer fined Milankowski $5,000 and warned him it could be his first and last chance to escape a lengthy sentence.

“This isn’t a case where there will be rider after rider,” the judge said.