CARROLLTON, Texas — Editor's note: Above video previously aired following Navarrete's arrest.
A man tied to trafficking fentanyl that led to teen overdoses, including deaths, has pleaded guilty to drug crimes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Northern District of Texas announced.
Luis Eduardo Navarrete, 21, was charged in February 2023 and indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2023.
Navarrete and 10 other defendants were charged after multiple students attending schools in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District overdosed after taking counterfeit "M30" pills that contained fentanyl, according to the Department of Justice.
On Nov. 1, 2023, Navarrete pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute a Schedule II controlled substance (fentanyl) and one count of distribution of a Schedule II controlled substance (fentanyl) to a person under 21 years of age, the DOJ said.
According to plea documents, codefendants admitted that Navarrete routinely dealt fentanyl-laced pills to juveniles from his home in Carrollton. In December 2022, Navarrete was on bond in a Dallas County criminal case and was ordered to house arrest and fitted with an ankle monitor.
Court documents say Navarrete relied on his co-conspirators to pick up the counterfeit pills from “a Dallas-based source of supply” and then deliver them to Navarrete’s home.
The DOJ said Navarrete was known to store the pills near the front door of his home and distributed them to customers who came by his house, including “a network of juvenile dealers,” who also delivered pills to other minors that attended Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD schools: R.L Turner High School, Dewitt Perry Middle School, and Dan F. Long Middle School.
In December 2022, officials said a 13-year-old Dewitt Perry Middle School student overdosed and died after ingesting one of the counterfeit M30 pills. Then a couple of months later, a 17-year-old R.L. Turner High School student overdosed and died after ingesting a pill.
Navarrete’s guilty plea comes after the fentanyl case’s “top source,” 18-year-old Julio Gonzales Jr., pleaded guilty to drug crimes. Gonzales admitted to receiving and selling around 120,000 counterfeit M30 pills.
Navarrete is the ninth suspect to plead guilty. He faces up to 40 years in federal prison for each count and $7 million in fines. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 21, 2024.