Two more defendants have been charged in the drug conspiracy that claimed the lives of three teenagers, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.
Roberta Alexander Gaitan, 20, and Rafael Soliz, Jr., 22, were charged in a superseding indictment filed in March with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance.
Gaitan was also charged with distribution of a controlled substance to a person under 21 years of age. The charges were unsealed on Tuesday, immediately following the defendants' arrests.
Gaitan and Soliz made their initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge Renee Toliver on Friday and were both ordered detained pending trial.
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According to the indictment, Gaitan and Soliz allegedly conspired with Jason Xavier Villanueva, Donovan Jude Andrews, Stephen Paul Brinson, Magaly Mejia Cano, and Luis Eduardo Navarrete to traffic counterfeit opioid pills laced with fentanyl to young teens, often through juvenile dealers.
To date, members of the conspiracy are tied to at least 12 juvenile overdoses, three of them fatal, in Carrollton and Flower Mound. The victims span the ages of 13 to 17. The drugs were often advertised through social media.
If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years each 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.
WHAT IS FENTANYL?
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Just two milligrams of fentanyl, which is equal to 10-15 grains of table salt, is considered a lethal dose.
Without laboratory testing, there is no way to know how much fentanyl is concentrated in a pill or powder. If you encounter fentanyl in any form, do not handle it and call 911 immediately.
Fentanyl remains the deadliest drug threat facing this country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 107,622 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, with 66% of those deaths related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
Drug poisonings are the leading killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. Fentanyl available in the United States is primarily supplied by two criminal drug networks, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
