Police say the third arrest is related to an overdose of Carrollton’s fentanyl.

CARROLTON, Texas — Carrollton police and federal officials have announced an additional arrest for recent drug overdoses from September 2022 to February 2023.

Officials said Jason Xavier Villanueva was arrested and charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl. The arrest comes after two people, Luis Navarrete and Magali Mejia Cano, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance earlier this month.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leiga Simonton said at a news conference that Villanueva allegedly worked through a juvenile dealer to supply fentanyl pills to Navarrete and Cano.

According to the affidavit, Navarrete and Cano are accused of conspiring to sell “M30” fentanyl pills to teenagers near Turner High School and DeWitt Perry High School in Carrollton. Authorities said Villanueva was a former student at R. L. Turner High School.

“These defendants were producing pills that looked exactly like prescription drugs,” Simonton said. “Instead of containing OxyContin, they contained fentanyl – up to 150 times more potent than OxyContin.”

Simonton said law enforcement believes the three are linked to 10 juvenile overdoses, three of which were fatal. Overdoses occurred within 6 months in victims between the ages of 13 and 16. Those who survived suffered from problems such as temporary paralysis and intubation.

“Dealing with fentanyl is knowingly putting lives in danger,” Simonton said. “To give fentanyl to minors is to deliberately destroy the future. Fentanyl is killing our children. We are angry with him, we are heartbroken, and we are determined to do everything in our power for this.

Simonton advises parents to speak frankly with their children about the dangers of fentanyl. And what if they see a pill they don’t recognize, confiscate it immediately. She also warned against monitoring her children’s social media activity.

“Drug dealers are increasingly using social media to advertise to minors,” she said.

Dallas Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Eduardo Chavez said 107,622 Americans died from drug use last year.

“This means that if these numbers remain the same in 2023, by the end of today, 295 people will die from drugs,” Chavez said. “Synthetic opioids like fentanyl are responsible for almost 70% of these deaths.”

Fake fentanyl pills have been seized throughout North Texas, from housing estates to gated communities, in both rural and urban areas, Chavez said.

According to Chavez, just 2 milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose. According to the DEA lab, six out of 10 fake pills on the streets today contain more than 2 milligrams of fentanyl.

“It should be assumed that the proposed pills most likely contain fentanyl,” Chavez said. “No legal recipe can be bought on social media.”

From September 18, 2022 to February 1, 2023, nine North Texas teenagers overdosed, including three who died, aged between 13 and 17. One of these victims overdosed twice.

Details from the criminal case include that the most common type of fentanyl pills sold by criminal organizations are small round blue pills labeled “M30”. These pills are commonly referred to as “Perks”, “Dergs”, “Dergs”, “Blues”, and “M30s”.

The complaint states that the dealers are between the ages of 14 and 17 and are R.L. Turner High School students, and that the pills will be distributed to several minors in the Dewitt Perry High School and High School area in Carrollton.

The complaint states that one of the arrested dealers told police that his supply source was known to him on social media as “Hoodhxavi2”. His account was found, where they saw a post from Villanueva, ridiculing a Carrollton police officer who issued him a warning for a traffic violation.

After viewing text messages between one of the underage dealers and Villanueva on Instagram, the complaint stated that police had discovered that Villanueva was the source of the supply of fentanyl pills.

A warrant was issued to search Villanueva’s Instagram account. As a result of the warrant, the police obtained several photographs from Villanueva’s account and photographs of drugs, including M30 pills, money and firearms.

After the investigation went viral after multiple juvenile overdoses and the arrest of Navarrette and Cano made national headlines, the complaint says Villanueva gave an “obvious” social media response to the investigation: “The only thing that’s going to stop us is it’s the feds.”

After Navarrete and Cano were arrested, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted about the case, saying state lawmakers want to make fentanyl poisoning a murder charge.

“The fentanyl crisis that has erupted in our country has tragic consequences,” Abbott said. “Too many Texas families have lost children to deadly fentanyl. Their loss will not be in vain.”