Three teens succumb to fentanyl overdoses

DAY

Sad story in Texas. A man and a woman have been arrested for selling fentanyl to schools, resulting in 10 teenage overdoses, including three who died.

Magaly Mejia Cano, 29, and Luis Eduardo Navarrete, 21, of Carrollton, are charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. 

The two accomplices distributed OxyContin and Percocet tablets containing fentanyl to minors at three schools in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, according to an affidavit viewed by The Independent.

The youth overdoses occurred between the end of September and February 1, 2023. The victims are between 13 and 17 years old. 

It appears that the pills of the deadly drug were sold for only $10 to young people.

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent claims that the three teenagers died after consuming the pills distributed by the suspects.  

The distribution network of Magaly Mejia Cano and Luis Eduardo Navarrete included at least eight underage resellers between the ages of 14 and 16, whose involvement in the resale of the tablets – which are also known as the name M30 – is moderate to severe.

Navarrete and underage dealers held their sales to students on Instagram. 

One of the young victims, a 14-year-old girl from RL Tuner High School, overdosed twice after buying drugs from dealers in Cano and Navarrete, one on Christmas Eve and the other on 16 January. She survived, but was partially paralyzed. 

“Selling drugs is a serious transgression, but selling deadly fentanyl to a minor is one of the most shocking and insensitive ways to hurt a community,” said Eduardo Chavez , special agent with the DEA's Dallas Field Division.

If convicted, Navarrete and Cano face up to 20 years in federal prison.