CARROLLTON, Texas — A combined 35 years in federal prison was handed down by a judge in the drug conspiracy case that claimed the lives of three teenage girls in North Texas.
WFAA has been covering this investigation since March 2023, and to date, there have been a total number of seven people connected to this case.
In June of last year, 23-year-olds Jason Xavier Villanueva and Rafael Soliz pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and distribution of fentanyl to a person under 21 years of age.
In July 2023, 20-year-old Roberta Alexander Gaitan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade sentenced Villanueva to 15 years, Gaitan will serve 5 years, and Soliz was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
According to the indictment, Gaitan and Soliz allegedly conspired with Villanueva, Donovan Jude Andrews, Stephan Paul Brinson, Magaly Mejia Cano and Luis Eduardo Navarrete to traffic counterfeit opioid pills laced with fentanyl to young teens, often through juvenile dealers, federal officials said.
Members charged in the conspiracy are tied to at least 12 juvenile overdoses – three of them fatal – in Carrollton and Flower Mound. The victim's ages span from 13 to 17, and the drugs were often advertised via social media, officials said.
“I was at today’s sentencing and heard statements from both the defendant’s and the victim’s family and friends. Nobody won today. This is what drug trafficking and abuse does. Lives have been destroyed and tragically some we will never get back,” said DEA Dallas Special Agent in Charge, Eduardo A. Chávez.
In court documents, Villanueva admitted to distributing more than 200,000 fentanyl pills in North Texas over five or six months, roughly 40,000 pills per month.
He sold the pills - round blue tablets marked M-30 - to a network of juvenile and adult dealers, including Gaitan and Soliz, who then sold them to friends, classmates and other customers in the Carrollton area.
Multiple agencies contributed to the investigation.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Office and the Carrollton Police Department conducted the investigation with the assistance of School Resource Officers from the Carrollton–Farmer’s Branch Independent School District and the Lewisville Independent School District. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rick Calvert and Phelesa Guy are prosecuting the case.