Former Kauai County Councilman Arthur Brun will spend 20 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole on 10 charges he pleaded guilty to related to his role as head of a drug trafficking ring.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson sentenced the 50-year-old Wednesday to 20 years for nine charges including conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine, assaulting a federal law enforcement officer, evidence tampering and witness tampering.

The judge also sentenced him to five years for conspiracy to defraud the United States, and to five years’ supervised release for six charges and three years’ supervised release for four counts. The sentences will all run together.

Watson rejected March 24 the parties’ plea agreement to a term of 15 years’ imprisonment.

In sentencing Brun, the judge said police officers put their lives on the line to protect the community and that when someone injures an officer while doing their job, the court’s obligation is to impose a sentence that adequately reflects the seriousness of the crime, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Brun has been held at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu, and was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, while awaiting transfer to federal prison.

On Nov. 10, Brun pleaded guilty to leading a drug trafficking organization while serving his second term on the Council and serving as vice chairman of the Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

“As methamphetamine trafficking continues to plague Hawaii as one of the worst crime problems in our state, the fact a publicly ­elected official led a criminal organization engaged in such activity magnifies the seriousness of this matter,” said U.S. Attorney Clare Connors. “We will continue to hold elected officials accountable for criminal misconduct.”

Brun was indicted in 2020 with 11 others, all of whom have pleaded guilty to various charges and are awaiting sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The 11 are Maluelue Umu, Kelvin Kai, Steven Keliikuli, Kaniu Huihui, Sheena Millare, Efren Yanos, Kirsten Ayau, Orlando Manguchei, Robby Silva, Haidee Sueyasu and Phrystal Bacio.

They had been “part of a major drug trafficking organization that was supplying a significant amount of methamphetamine through the community,” the Kauai police chief said when they were indicted.

Brun and the 11 conspired to break federal drug law and distribute substantial amounts of methamphetamine on Kauai from June 2019 until January 2020.

The Feb. 13, 2020, federal grand jury indictment alleged Brun, also known as “Ata,” was leading a drug trafficking organization and partnered with Umu, leader of the United Samoan Organization, described as a gang that operates in and out of the state prison system.

Brun’s suspicious actions started to surface in 2019, but until the indictment the extent of his actions was unclear.

On Oct. 29, 2019, Brun fled during a traffic stop in Lihue, injuring a police officer. Police pursued, arrested and charged him with first-degree assault of a law enforcement officer and failure to stop a motor vehicle, and released him on $10,000 bail.

But the details that Brun threw a little over a pound of meth, supplied by Umu, out of his car window while fleeing from police was not made public until the indictment. Unbeknownst to Brun, the Kauai Police Department had recovered the methamphetamine.

The government wiretapped numerous phone and text conversations between Brun and other defendants, including a USO gang member not charged.

A KPD narcotics detection dog alerted officers to the odor of narcotics in the vehicle, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Thursday in a news release.

A KPD lieutenant, acting under the direction of federal investigators, asked Brun to exit the vehicle. When he refused, the lieutenant reached inside the vehicle to remove the keys from the ignition. Brun then sped off, injuring the lieutenant, whose arm and shoulder were still partly in the vehicle.

As late as Feb. 7, 2020, six days before the indictment, Brun, while driving, crossed the centerline on Kapaa Bypass Road and hit a pickup truck, injuring a 6-year-old boy and a 49-year-old man.