A Red Deer man will be sentenced in early February after pleading guilty to trafficking crack cocaine on Monday.
John Karl Kuhnen, 44, pleaded guilty to possession of a drug for the purpose of trafficking and improperly storing a firearm and ammunition. He will be sentenced on Feb. 2 in Red Deer provincial court.
Kuhnen will first have a pre-sentence report prepared by a probation officer to help the court better determine a fit sentence.
Kuhnen was set to have a trial on Monday but changed his plea.
A charge of failing to comply with a court order was withdrawn by federal prosecutor Dave Inglis.
Inglis told Judge Thomas Schollie that Red Deer city RCMP acting on information on Dec. 22, 2009, started surveillance of a residence on Grant Street.
The undercover work yielded police with sufficient grounds to obtain a search warrant as they observed the behaviour of the accused was consistent with drug trafficking, Inglis said.
While executing the search warrant, police saw Kuhnen drive away. When they stopped him, they found almost 10 grams of crack cocaine on his person and in the vehicle.
Police also seized a cellphone, which rang twice with calls from people wanting to buy drugs.
RCMP then searched the residence and located a shotgun in Kuhnen’s bedroom and ammunition nearby. The gun wasn’t stored properly. A debt ledger outlining drug dealing was also discovered.