‘We couldn’t waste time’: how Carrollton police fought the fentanyl epidemic

CARROLTON, Texas – The Carrollton teenagers made drug deals on Instagram.

One 16-year-old drug dealer asked, “Try it, can you make $130 in 40 30 seconds?”

It’s slang for buying 40 M30 tablets for $130.

But the teen didn’t try to buy M30s prescription oxycodone. Instead, he bought counterfeit pills, made to look like the real thing, and laced with the deadly drug fentanyl.

“Addiction is what drives these kids,” said a Carrollton police sergeant who oversaw an investigation into at least a dozen teen overdoses that began last September.

The sergeant who oversees the Street Crime Unit is undercover and has asked the WFAA to hide his identity.

“They make money from the sale of pills and they use that money to buy more pills for their personal addiction,” Sgt. “This substance is so dangerous and deadly that we didn’t have time to waste it.”

Three teenagers died in connection with these overdoses. The overdose victims were between the ages of 13 and 17.

His unit’s work resulted in the arrest of three adult and eight teenage drug dealers.

“This work started off the radar, like much of the police work,” Carrollton Police Chief Robert Arredondo told WFAA.

Arredondo previously served as the Dallas Police Commander and until recently was the Victorian Police Chief before becoming Carrollton Police Chief in early January. Ever since he took the job, he has been at the center of the North Texas fight against fentanyl.

“When they say one pill can kill, it’s 100% true,” Arredondo said.

In fact, teen bodies started showing up at the Dallas County Morgue in 2020. To date, at least 21 people have died.

The deaths are scattered throughout the county, with the youngest victim, an 11-year-old child, dying in Irving in October 2020.

Most of the teenagers were found in their bedrooms by family members overdosing alone.

“My heart goes out to the city of Carrollton,” said Lance Sumpter, director of the Texoma High Intensive Drug Task Area (HIDTA), a federal drug trafficking program. “But choose a city in this Metroplex and one day it will be Carrollton. Hopefully not next week. Hope it’s not next month. But there’s nothing special about Carrollton that would bring trouble here.”

As overdoses continued to occur in Carrollton, the sergeant and his Street Crime Unit narrowed their investigation to a decrepit house on Highland Drive in Carrollton.

Luis Navarrete and Magali Cano lived here.

Court records say detectives observed the couple supplying lethal drugs to students at nearby R. L. Turner High School.

Their investigation also led them to Jason Villanueva, who, according to court documents, “directly or indirectly” supplied eight underage drug dealers.

“IIt really shows how easy it is to influence a minor, and these adult drug dealers used their influence on young children and preyed on them,” Arredondo said.

The sergeant told the WFAA that counterfeit pills typically sell on the streets for about $10 each.

“Sometimes these pills can be used four times from one pill, so they break it into quarters and get four uses from one,” he said. “There is no consistency in the way pills are made. There can be a lethal amount of fentanyl on one side of one pill, and absolutely nothing on the other side.”

Initially, the teens may have thought they were buying legal oxycodone pills, he said. He no longer believes that this is so.

“In my opinion, at this point in March 2023, these kids know it’s fentanyl,” the sergeant said.

According to Dallas County Medical Examiner’s records, 18-year-old Joshua Joel died in October 2022 from “toxic fentanyl exposure” at his family’s South Josie Lane apartment in Carrollton.

Records show that his father found him “unresponsive and lying face down on the floor in the closet” of his bedroom.

Fourteen-year-old José Alberto Perez died on January 26.

His mother, Lily Astudillospeaks he was one of three children who died of a fentanyl overdose. The cause of his death has not yet been established.

“They don’t know how much pain they are causing us,” Astudillo said last month. “Losing a child is something very difficult, very difficult, and I don’t wish this on anyone, even them. “

In some cases, children have repeatedly overdosed.

The WFAA has learned that a 14-year-old girl from Carrollton has overdosed four times since December 24. In one case, she suffered temporary paralysis.

“It’s shocking to me that after losing your legs, you go back to this substance,” said the sergeant.This speaks to the addictive nature of the substance.”

Even after the arrests of Navarrete, Cano and Villanueva, court records allege that others tried to enter to claim their territory.

According to court records, Donovan Andrews posted online under a pseudonym “deegetbandz_3x” that he is glad that Navarrete and Cano are getting all the attention. He wrote that he had pills for sale. “$10….A….POP.”

Authorities linked him to several drug overdoses involving Carrollton and Lewisville teenagers in February. He was arrested on March 1st. Now he’s also facing federal drug charges.

The sergeant issued a warning to other police departments.

“He’s coming for you,” he said. “When this first overdose occurs, investigate it fully and completely, trying to identify the guilty party as quickly as possible.”