TACOMA, Wash. — A “key member” of a drug distribution ring known for selling fentanyl pills, methamphetamine, and heroin throughout the Puget Sound region has been sentenced to 14 years in prison, according to the Western District of Washington U.S. Attorney’s Office (WDWA).
WDWA said 46-year-old Michael Slocumb was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Tacoma for his role in a “multi-faceted drug conspiracy” and for “possessing firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.”
Slocumb reportedly tried to evade police, helping to move the drug ring activities to Arizona after the Shelton, Washington, stash house he and his partners operated was raided in December 2022. When police moved in and took down the ring in March 2023, Slocumb was arrested in his new home in Arizona.
At the sentencing hearing Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo said about the fentanyl pills seized, “People become addicted to these drugs... they end up taking a bad dose and that ends their time on this Earth.”
According to WDWA, Slocumb made multiple trips to Arizona in the fall of 2022 to pick up and transport narcotics to the Shelton stash house. Slocumb used the stash house to make fentanyl pills, and when the stash house property was searched on December 9, 2022, police seized more than 640,000 pills containing fentanyl, as well as a kilogram of fentanyl powder and 12 kilograms of methamphetamine, along with more than $81,000 in cash from drug trafficking.
The Shelton stash house also reportedly contained 23 firearms. Several guns were found in Slocumb’s car as well, including handguns, an AR-15 type rifle with a folding shoulder stock, a loaded 115-round drum magazine, and a 9mm firearm silencer.
Regarding the guns, Judge Estudillo said, “The firearms involved here are extremely serious and the types of firearms make me wonder what they may have been used for.”
During this conspiracy, WDWA reports that police intercepted Slocumb discussing kidnapping a rival drug dealer. Slocumb was surveilling the target’s apartment when police “made a show of being in the vicinity” to get Slocumb to leave and ward off any violence.
Following the stash house raid, Slocumb was heard on the wiretap discussing his plan to move drug operations to Arizona. Slocumb continued drug trafficking in Arizona until he was arrested in March 2023. When police searched the Arizona property, they seized around 70 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Slocumb’s arrest in March 2023 was part of a coordinated takedown involving ten swat teams and more than 350 law enforcement officers. On that day, law enforcement made two dozen arrests and seized 177 firearms, more than ten kilos of methamphetamine, 11 kilos of fentanyl pills and more than a kilo of fentanyl powder, three kilos of heroin, and more than $330,000 in cash from eighteen locations in Washington and Arizona. Earlier in the investigation, law enforcement seized 830,000 fentanyl pills, 5.5 pounds of fentanyl powder, 223 pounds of methamphetamine, 3.5 pounds of heroin, 5 pounds of cocaine, $388,000 in cash, and 48 firearms.
Slocumb pled guilty in November 2024 to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, with prosecutors asking for a 15-year sentence.
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