DALLAS — A 20-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to a drug charge related to a fentanyl distribution scheme that's been linked to at least a dozen juvenile overdoses in the North Texas area, federal officials announced.
Magaly Mejia Cano entered a guilty plea on Tuesday to a charge of one count of distribution of a controlled substance to a person under 21 years old. She faces up to 40 years in federal prison and a $2 million fine.
In a news release, officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office said Cano had been charged in connection to a fentanyl trafficking scheme that led to 12 juvenile overdoses -- three of which were fatal -- in Carrollton and Flower Mound.
Six others still face charges in this drug distribution scheme, officials said.
According to affidavit back in February 2023 when Cano was arrested, teenagers had overdosed on fentanyl pills tied to a drug house near R.L. Turner High School in Carrollton. The overdoses happened since September 2022.
At the time, she and Luis Navarrete were arrested on drug distribution charges.
Plea papers revealed Cano admitted Navarrete "routinely" dealt fentanyl-laced pills imprinted with M/30 and resembled prescription narcotics to minors, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Cano also admitted there was a network of juvenile dealers who would deal the pills to other minors, officials said.
According to the plea papers, Cano said she had distributed pills to customers, including a 16-year-old, at Navarrete's direction.
Among the teenagers who died from these fentanyl overdoses was 14-year-old Jose Alberto Perez. His mother told WFAA she found him dead when she went to wake him up for school one morning.
"They don’t know the pain they have caused me," Perez's mother, Lilia Astudillo, said in February regarding the drug trafficking suspects. "I don’t wish it on anyone… not even them."
On April 24, Astudillo joined other parents who lost children to fentanyl in a roundtable discussion about the drug hosted by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
"Just 2mg of fentanyl can cut a young life tragically short. Peddling fentanyl pills to teenagers is one of the most callous crimes a trafficker can commit," U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton said in a statement on Tuesday. "With Ms. Cano’s plea today, we are one step closer to getting justice for parents who lost their teens to fentanyl."