A major supplier of crystal methamphetamine to Hawai'i has pleaded guilty to a federal drug charge and has admitted he mailed more than 200 pounds of ice to the state from 2003 to 2005.

Charles Lee Ranney Jr., a former Hawai'i resident living in Las Vegas, agreed to forfeit $2 million to the federal government as proceeds related to his ice deals, an additional $233,419 in cash, and a parcel of land and three residential properties in Las Vegas.

Ranney also agreed to forfeit a .357 magnum revolver recovered from his Las Vegas home in September last year.

Ranney pleaded guilty on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Michael Seabright as part of a plea agreement that calls for him to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Inciong said Ranney was clearly a major supplier of methamphetamine to Hawai'i.

"I would hope that now that he's being taken out, that would have a big impact on the supply coming into the state," he said.

Ranney pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute ice, which carries a prison term ranging from 10 years to life.

Under his plea agreement, he will get credit for pleading guilty and prosecutors may ask for a lighter sentence as a result of his cooperation.

The sentencing is scheduled for March 1.

Earle Partington, one of Ranney's lawyers, said his client pleaded guilty in the hopes of avoiding a life sentence. Ranney, who was born and raised in Hawai'i, has already cooperated in providing authorities with the names of his ice sources on the Mainland, Partington said.

Ranney was indicted by a federal grand jury in Honolulu in September last year after about 35 pounds of ice and $202,060 in cash were seized from a Waipahu home. The ice seizure was the largest here since the 1980s.

Ranney acknowledged that he supplied the ice and agreed that the cash would be forfeited to the federal government.

In his agreement, Ranney admitted he mailed about 100 pounds of ice to a Wahiawa home in 2004. He also admitted to sending parcels containing 10 to 31 pounds of ice to Waipahu addresses in 2005.

Five others charged in the case are scheduled to go on trial Sept. 26.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.