Man pleads guilty to federal drug, gun charges

MINNEAPOLIS – A 49-year-old Red Lake man pleaded guilty Thursday to possessing more than 2.5 kilograms of marijuana with intent to distribute and possessing a firearm in support of drug trafficking.

Keith Brian Donnell pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking offense and one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

He was indicted last Nov. 22.

In his plea agreement, Donnell admitted he possessed more than two kilograms of marijuana April 14, 2011, and intended to sell it. The marijuana was found while officers executed a search warrant at his home.

Court papers state officers found the marijuana packaged as five separate bricks, five firearms and $12,622.

Donnell will be sentenced at a later date and faces up to life in prison on the firearm possession count and five years on the marijuana count. He faces a minimum of five years in prison. There is no parole in the federal prison system.