CARROLLTON (WBAP/KLIF) – A Carrollton couple is being linked to as many as 10 juvenile overdoses involving local teenagers. Three of the overdoses were fatal.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton said Monday that 21-year-old Luis Eduardo Navarrete, and 29-year-old Magaly Mejia Cano, were charged via criminal complaint with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the couple was arrested at Navarrete’s residence in Carrollton on Friday and made their initial appearances Monday afternoon.
“To deal fentanyl is to knowingly imperil lives. To deal fentanyl to minors — naive middle and high school students — is to shatter futures. These defendants’ alleged actions are simply despicable. We can never replace the three teenagers whose lives were lost, nor can we heal the psychological scars of those who survived their overdoses. But we can take action to ensure these defendants are never allowed to hand a pill to a child again,” Simonton said.
According to the complaint, Navarrete an Cano allegedly dealt fake Percocet and Oxycontin pills laced with fentanyl, commonly known as “M30s,” to multiple juvenile drug dealers, mostly students at RL Turner High School, who in turn sold the drugs to their fellow students at R.L. Turner High School and to younger students at Dewitt Perry and Dan F. Long Middle Schools. Nine students at those schools – ranging in age from 13 to 17 – suffered ten overdoses, three of which were fatal, between September 2022 and February 2023.
One victim, a 14-year-old girl who overdosed twice and suffered temporary paralysis, told law enforcement the pills she ingested came from juvenile dealers who obtained the drugs from Navarrete. She also confirmed she had purchased pills directly from Navarrete in the past.
Law enforcement conducting surveillance at Navarrete’s home observed him engage in a hand-to-hand transaction with another 16-year-old dealer on January 12. Officers followed the juvenile into a bathroom at R.L. Turner, where he holed up in a stall to snort the drugs. He later admitted that he’d obtained the pills, which he called “perc pills,” from Navarrete.
If convicted, Navarrete and Cano each face up to 20 years in federal prison.
Copyright 2023. WBAP/KLIF News. All Rights Reserved.