DALLAS — Two more people have been arrested and charged in the drug conspiracy that killed three North Texas teenagers, bringing the total number of people connected to seven.
Roberta Alexander Gaitan, 20, and Rafael Soliz, Jr., 22, were charged 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.
According to the indictment, Gaitan and Soliz allegedly conspired with Jason Xavier 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.
To date, members charged in the conspiracy are tied to at least 12 juvenile overdoses – three of them fatal – in Carrollton and Flower Mound. The victims ages span from 13 to 17, and the drugs were often advertised via social media, officials said.
If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years each in federal prison.
WFAA recently took a look inside the DEA's drug lab and vault and talked to those fighting this deadly crisis. Inside the vault, in an undisclosed location, we found boxes piled up to the ceiling. Inside those boxes were drugs worth billions of dollars.
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