Leigha Simonton, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, announced in a press release on Friday that Robert Alexander Gaitan, 20, and Rafael Soliz, Jr., 22, “were charged in a superseding indictment filed in March with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance; Mr. Gaitan was also charged with distribution of a controlled substance to a person under 21 years of age.”
Gaitan and Soliz were arrested on Tuesday and made their first appearance before the U.S. Magistrate judge Friday morning, when they were ordered to be detained. These are the latest suspects authorities have linked to the student deaths and poisonings between the fall of 2022 and this spring.
“According to the indictment, Mr. Gaitan and Mr. 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 via juvenile dealers,” the statement read. “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 deadly drugs were often advertised via social media.”
Villanueva, whom Simonton called the “main source of supply” upon his arrest in February, allegedly provided Cano and Navarrete with fentanyl-laced pills that were sold as other prescription opioids including Percocet and Oxycontin. Andrews was arrested in early March after police say he “capitalized on the arrest of two prominent fentanyl traffickers to entice young buyers."
"To date, members of the conspiracy are tied to at least 12 juvenile overdoses – three of them fatal – in Carrollton and Flower Mound." – Leigha Simonton, U.S. Attorney for Northern District of Texas
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A week after Andrews was arrested, police caught up to Brinson as he, too, was suspected of filling the drug-selling void left by the previous arrests. Many of the suspects involved conducted drug sales through messages on social media apps such as SnapChat, as well as in-person encounters involving junior-high and high-school students in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD.
In the months since the initial arrests were made, the district has continued to deal with suspected fentanyl overdoses, including ones on its campuses. In March, a student at R.L. Turner High School was found unresponsive after ingesting a pill before being revived using Narcan, a nasal spray that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. Narcan was used again a month later in Carrollton, this time at DeWitt Perry Middle School, when the school nurse helped revive a 13-year-old student.
Although not believed to be connected to the Carrollton cases, in nearby Plano, Sienna Vaughn died from a fentanyl overdose in February after her parents say the 16-year-old thought she was taking a Percocet pill. Vaughn’s death helped lead the city of Plano to host a Fentanyl Drug Forum at which police and parents of children who have died from fentanyl educated residents on fentanyl’s dangers. The Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD has also begun to ramp up its fentanyl awareness efforts.
A number of bills regarding fentanyl, including ones for stronger penalties for dealers and the legalization of fentanyl testing strips, have been introduced in the Texas Legislature this session.
If convicted, Gaitan and Soliz each face up to 20 years in federal prison.
