Major supplier, 2 others sentenced in fentanyl overdose case that claimed 3 North Texas teens
NORTH TEXAS - A judge handed down a total of 35 years on Wednesday in the drug conspiracy case that claimed the lives of three teenage girls in North Texas.
In June 2023, Jason Xavier Villanueva and Rafael Soliz, Jr., both 23-years-old, 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.
Two middle school and one high school student died after taking the fentanyl pills the three suspects were involved in selling and/or delivery, according to court documents. The defendants knew the ages of the students they were selling to and knew the pills they were selling contained fentanyl.
In court documents, Villanueva admitted he distributed more than 200,000 fentanyl pills to North Texas customers 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 to friends, classmates, and other customers in Carrollton.
Villanueva was identified during the investigation as being one of the primary sources of counterfeit M30 pills.
Villanueva often advertised on Instagram and, following the arrest of one of his codefendants in February 2023, posted, "Only thing that's gonna stop us is feds."
Ten suspects have been charged in the drug conspiracy tied to at least 12 juvenile overdoses, three of them fatal, in Carrollton and Flower Mound.
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"Precious children in our north Texas community died and more overdosed and almost died as a direct result of these defendants' actions, and I am proud of my dedicated prosecutors for working tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to bring these men to justice," said Leigha Simonton, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. "We will not stop until every dealer or trafficker knows that we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law if you distribute the deadly drug of fentanyl."
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade sentenced Villanueva to 15 years in federal prison, Gaitan to 5 years in federal prison, and Soliz to 15 years in federal prison.
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.