North Texas fentanyl supplier tied to 4 deadly teen overdoses gets 20 years in prison

The first defendant charged in a North Texas fentanyl overdose case that killed four teens was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton announced in a news release Wednesday.

Luis Eduardo Navarrete, 22, was charged via criminal complaint in February 2023 and was indicted the following month. He pleaded guilty in November 2023 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and distribution of a controlled substance to a person under 21 years of age.

“Even as children overdosed and died around him, this defendant continued to distribute poisonous pills to juvenile dealers to sell in grade schools,” said Simonton in the release. “Brushing off the pain of his young victims’ family and friends, he delivered fentanyl into the hands of children, extinguishing lives before they’d even really begun. The callousness he displayed is truly chilling.

According to court documents, Navarette and several other co-conspirators trafficked fentanyl pills to a network of juvenile drug dealers, who then sold the pills, which were stamped with “M-30” to resemble oxycodone. The pills were sold to students at R.L. Turner High School, Dewitt Perry Middle School in Carrollton and Dan Long Middle School in Dallas.

At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, A DEA officer testified that Navarrete began distributing fentanyl in August 2022. When he was ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor from another case, he relied on two “drug runners,” defendants Rafael Soliz Jr. and Robert Gaitan, to pick up the counterfeit pills and have them delivered to his home in Carrollton.

Navarrete continued to supply the pills to adults and minors even after he was told they were causing overdoses, according to evidence presented at the hearing. This includes when a juvenile dealer told him on Jan. 26, 2023, that a 14-year-old middle school student fatally overdosed after consuming a counterfeit pill supplied by Navarrete.

A week after the 14-year-old’s death, another juvenile dealer told Navarrete that a 17-year-old high school student “couldn’t wake up” after taking a counterfeit pill.

Navarrete was arrested on Feb. 3, 2023, two days after the 17-year-old’s overdose.

The fentanyl came from a Mexican cartel, the DEA agent testified at the hearing. Over the course of the investigation, officers arrested about 40 adults and juveniles and seized more than 1.2 million fentanyl pills, according to authorities. The ring of fentanyl trafficking in Carrollton and Dallas schools lead to 14 overdoses in minors, four of which were deadly.

Navarrete is one of 11 defendants federally charged in connection to the case. His main supplier, Jason Xavier Villanueva, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Soliz received 15 years, and Gaitan was sentenced to five years.

“He was the soul of our home,” a mother of one of the juveniles who overdosed said at the hearing. “I would like for everyone who’s present to know that these people who sell fentanyl, they destroy families…. On behalf of all those children who have passed away due to fentanyl, this has to stop.”

Illicitly produced, fentanyl-laced pills look similar to legitimate prescription pills such as Oxycontin or Percocet, but pose significantly more danger. These pills are often referred to as “M30s,” “blues,” “perks,” “yerks,” “china girls” or “TNT.” Six out 10 pills laced with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose, according to research from the DEA.

For more information about fentanyl, visit the DEA’s website.