CHICAGO — The man prosecutors said carried 62 pounds of suspected cocaine worth $3.5 million in his luggage at Midway International Airport has been given a seven-year prison sentence.
Terrence Slaughter, 56, was arrested at Midway on October 24, 2023. Coincidentally, that day was the 16th anniversary of a federal judge sentencing him to 15.67 years for stealing guns from a retired cop and intentionally selling them to gang members, according to court records.
Chicago police officers who arrested Slaughter at Midway said he gave investigators permission to search his two roller bags. Cops found 12 vacuum-sealed bags of suspected cocaine in one bag and 11 sealed bags of suspected cocaine in the other, prosecutors said in court filings. Altogether, the investigators recovered 62 pounds of suspected cocaine with a street value of $3,518,125, prosecutors claimed.
Slaughter resolved the matter by pleading guilty to manufacture-delivery of 15 to 100 grams of cocaine, court records show. Judge Carol Howard handed him the seven-year term. He is expected to be paroled on January 5, 2028.
On October 24, 2007, a federal judge in Chicago sentenced Slaughter to 188 months in prison for a case that began in May 2003 after cops saw him carry two rifles out of a retired Illinois State Police sergeant’s home in suburban North Riverside. The police allegedly found eight more guns in his car.
Slaughter “admitted to stealing a total of 33 to 38 guns from the police sergeant’s home and selling some of the firearms to known gang members,” an appellate court later wrote, saying he pleaded guilty to two federal gun charges without securing a plea deal.
His state felony convictions include narcotics convictions in 2002 and 1991 and two theft-related cases in 1997.
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