North Texas drug dealer, who has been tied to teen fentanyl overdoses, pleads guilty

Nicole Lopez
·2 min read
5

A fentanyl trafficker tied to a North Texas juvenile fentanyl overdose case pleaded guilty to drug crimes, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton announced in a news release on Thursday.

Luis Eduardo Navarrete, 21, was charged via criminal complaint in Feb. 2023 and was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 29.

Navarrete and 10 other defendants were charged after multiple students in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District overdosed after consuming counterfeit M30 pills containing fentanyl, according to the release.

He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute a Schedule-II controlled substance (fentanyl) and one count of distribution of a Schedule-II controlled substance to a person under 21 years of age.

Co-defendants admitted Navarrete regularly dealt fentanyl-laced pills to juveniles from his Highland Drive residence in Carrollton, Texas, according to plea documents.

In Dec. 2022, Navarrete was on bond in a Dallas County criminal case and was ordered to home confinement, fitted with an ankle monitor that tracked his location and movements.

Navarrete relied on his co-conspirators to pick up quantities of the fentanyl-laced pills from a supplier in Dallas and deliver them to Navarrete’s home, according to the release.

He stored the counterfeit pills near the front door of his residence and distributed the pills to customers who came by the house — including to a network of juvenile dealers who dealt the pills to students who attended R.L. Turner High School, Dewitt Perry Middle School, and Dan F. Long Middle School in Carrollton, the release states.

From Dec. 2022 to Feb. 2023, a 13-year-old Dewitt Perry Middle School student, a 14-year-old student at Dan F. Long Middle School, and a 17-year-old R.L. Turner High School student all overdosed and died after each ingested a counterfeit M30 pill, according to the release.

Navarrete faces up to 40 years in federal prison for each count and $7 million in fines. He will be sentenced on Feb. 21, 2024.

The DEA’s Dallas Field Office and the Carrollton Police Department conducted the investigation with assistance from School Resource Officers from the Carrollton — Farmer’s Branch Independent School District.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rick Calvert and Phelesa Guy have prosecuted the case.