TRI-CITIES, Wash.-A Seattle man will spend nine years in jail for transporting fentanyl to the Tri-Cities.
Tommie Slack was sentenced on April 11 in Richland for operating as a drug courier for his son, bringing thousands of fentanyl pills to the Tri-Cities. He must also serve five years of probation after his release from prison.
Slack was arrested on Dec. 21, 2022 after an investigation involving a cooperating defendant who was recorded selling fentanyl.
The defendant agreed to cooperate with the investigation and revealed that Tommie and Tramein Slack, of Seattle, were the source of the fentanyl that he sold.
Tommie Slack is Tramein’s father. During the investigation the defendant revealed that Tramein was the main supplier and Tommie often worked as a courier.
According to court documents the defendant reported that they had been receiving fentanyl from the Slacks for months and had even travelled to Arizona with Tramein Slack to purchase one hundred thousand fentanyl tablets for $150,000.
Tommie Slack reportedly usually transported the fentanyl tablets and proceeds from selling them back and forth to Seattle, usually bringing ten thousand fentanyl tablets to the Tri-Cities every two weeks.
The cooperating defendant then placed a recorded phone call to Tommie Slack to place an order for a normal shipment of fentanyl, according to court documents.
A transaction was set for Slack and the defendant to meet at the Hampton Inn in Kennewick, where the Tri-Cities Regional SWAT team arrested Tommie Slack and two other people in his car.
After obtaining a search warrant seven bags of fentanyl tablets were recovered inside, with about a thousand fentanyl pills in each bag. A handgun was also removed from the car.
