A 22-year-old Federal Way man has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for his role in a family-run fentanyl trafficking operation that investigators say funneled hundreds of thousands of pills across state lines, with narcotics from the ring linked to a cluster of fatal overdoses on the Lummi Nation reservation. Sir Terrique Milam's sentence is the longest handed down so far among the five co-defendants punished in the sprawling case, which has already led to charges against 17 people.
According to FOX 13 Seattle, Milam had planned to travel to Arizona with co-defendant Markell Jackson to pick up 150,000 fentanyl pills, and investigators say he traveled with Jackson on other occasions to retrieve large amounts of fentanyl meant for distribution around the country. Law enforcement identified Milam returning from Eastern Washington during an August 2024 wiretap investigation, and a search of his Federal Way home that October turned up 323.8 grams of fentanyl, multiple drug scales, and $4,900 in cash that Milam admitted came from selling drugs. A gun was also found with Milam during a separate traffic stop.
U.S. Attorney's Office prosecutor Jamal Whitehead told the court that Milam “was in on the conspiracy… you knew what you were selling… and you kept going even after contact with law enforcement,” per the station's report. Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said Milam “was a trusted member of this drug trafficking organization,” and prosecutor W. Mike Herrington said Milam “conspired to distribute huge quantities of deadly drugs.” Milam also has prior convictions for promoting prostitution and illegal firearms possession, the outlet noted.
A Family Operation With a Deadly Reach
The case centers on a drug ring prosecutors describe as family-based, led by 33-year-old Marquis Jackson along with 52-year-old Mandel Jackson, 51-year-old Matelita Jackson, 23-year-old Markell Jackson, and 25-year-old Miracle Jackson. The investigation, which involved FBI agencies around the country along with the Seattle Police Department and the King County Sheriff's Office, has so far seized over 846,000 fentanyl pills, about 7 kilograms of fentanyl powder and cocaine, 29 guns, and more than $116,000 in cash, the same account states.
The federal probe traces back further than this week's sentencing. According to the Department of Justice, the investigation was originally triggered after four tribal citizens of the Lummi Nation died from fentanyl overdoses within a four-day span in September 2023, prompting the Lummi Indian Business Council to declare a state of emergency. Tribal authorities uncovered connections to the ring after examining an overdose victim's phone. Federal authorities have said the organization ran an interstate supply network reaching across Washington, Arizona, Texas, Missouri, Montana, Kansas, and Georgia, with Marquis Jackson splitting time between Atlanta and his family's home in Renton.
Seattle Nonprofit Leader Among the Co-Defendants
One of the most striking threads in the case involves co-defendant Matelita “Marty” Jackson, who served as executive director of SE Network SafetyNet, a violence intervention program under the Boys & Girls Clubs of King County operating in Seattle Public Schools. She was fired after her October 2024 federal indictment, which alleges she laundered drug money through pass-through accounts, according to KING 5. The program had received public funding to curb gun violence before its director's indictment upended it.
Prosecutors have also continued to expand the scope of the case since the initial arrests. A federal superseding indictment filed in December 2025 expanded the prosecution to 23 total defendants and added charges related to forced prostitution involving Marquis Jackson, as reported by KOMO News. Court documents cited by the outlet describe how the ring smuggled narcotics across state lines using airport couriers carrying so-called ghost bags, shipping drugs inside protein powder containers, and hiding pills inside vehicle tires.
Local Distribution Nodes and Regional Fallout
During the October 2024 takedown, law enforcement also arrested four Whatcom County men — Robert Bellair, Thomas J. Morris, Patrick James, and Ronald Finkbonner — on criminal complaints alleging they operated as local distribution nodes for the ring, according to KAFE. Local buyers in Bellingham and Ferndale allegedly served as direct conduit links to tribal reservations, illustrating how the Seattle-based operation established regional sub-networks into northern Washington communities.
The lethality of the pills moving through such networks reflects a broader regional trend. Drug Enforcement Administration forensic lab testing in 2023 found that 7 out of 10 fake prescription pills analyzed contained a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, up from 4 out of 10 pills tested in 2021, per Cascadia Daily News. In response to the Lummi Nation overdose crisis, federal lawmakers introduced the bipartisan PROTECT Act in August 2024, aiming to expand tribal court authority to issue social media search warrants and prosecute non-tribal drug traffickers.
Other Sentences in the Case So Far
Milam is the latest in a growing line of defendants to be sentenced. Robert Johnson of Renton received 70 months in prison, Treyvon Mitchell of Kent got six years, and Tyrell Lewis of Federal Way was sentenced to 37 months, per FOX 13 Seattle. Tacoma resident Michael Young Jr., 44, became the first defendant sentenced in the investigation in November 2025, receiving seven years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances — a case Hoodline covered at the time. Phillip Lamont Alexander, 50, of Des Moines, Washington, is scheduled for sentencing in November.
Milam admitted on a wiretap that he had gotten drugs out of a car before police could search it, according to the outlet's report. Family members and other alleged participants in the ring are scheduled for trial in July 2027, and open questions remain about how prosecutors will present the newly added prostitution and human exploitation charges, as well as whether more regional distributors will reach plea deals before then.
