Who are Luis Eduardo Navarrete and Magaly Cano? Couple charged with selling fentanyl as 3 teens die
CARROLLTON, TEXAS: Two fentanyl dealers Luis Eduardo Navarrete, 21, and Magaly Mejia Cano, 29, have left three Carrollton-Farmers branch students dead and seven hospitalized. The couple accused in the case were arrested at Navarrete’s residence in Carrollton on Friday, February 3, and have been federally charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl.
According to The Dallas Morning News, the pills, described by investigators as “fake Percocet and Oxycontin,” were sold out of the couple’s house at 1823 Highland Drive, near RL Turner High School. Eight of the juveniles, aged between 14 and 16, to whom Navarrete and Cano allegedly sold the pills, sold them to other students between September 2022 and February 2023. A 14-year-old RL Turner student nearly died twice on December 24 and January 16, after taking an “M30,” which is among the most common street names, along with “percs” and “yerks,” sold for $10 each, according to the outlet. The teen, when overdosed on Christmas Eve, was rushed to the hospital. However, the second incident in January left her with temporary paralysis.
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Another RL Turner student, 16, identified as one of the juvenile dealers, was seen by investigators appearing “to crush up a pill and snort it on the front porch area of the residence” before appearing “to manipulate small pieces of paper and possibly package drugs.” Officers followed the teen into a bathroom at RL Turner, where he holed up in a stall to snort the drugs. He later admitted that he’d obtained the pills, which he called “perc pills”, from Navarrete.
'Selling drugs alone is serious transgression'
Commenting on it, US Attorney Leigha Simonton said in a release, "To deal fentanyl is to knowingly imperil lives. To deal fentanyl to minors, naive middle, and high school students is to shatter futures. These defendants alleged actions are simply despicable. We can never replace the three teenagers whose lives were lost, nor can we heal the psychological scars of those who survived their overdoses. But we can take action to ensure these defendants are never allowed to hand a pill to a child again.”
While Eduardo A Chavez, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Dallas Field Division, explained, "Selling drugs alone is a serious transgression, but to sell deadly fentanyl to a juvenile is one of the most shocking and callous ways to hurt a community. DEA Dallas and our partners from the Carrollton Police Department will work to identify and hold accountable every individual who thinks they can profit by exposing our neighborhoods, and our children, to this deadly substance.”
Who are Luis Eduardo Navarrete and Magaly Cano?
According to the release, Navarrete and Cano allegedly dealt fake Percocet and Oxycontin pills laced with fentanyl, commonly known as “M30s” to several juvenile drug dealers, mostly students at RL Turner High School, who then sold the drugs to their fellow students at the school and also to students at Dewitt Perry and Dan F Long Middle Schools.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Field Office and the Carrollton Police Department conducted the investigation with the assistance of School Resource Officers from the Carrollton Farmer’s Branch Independent School. Assistant US Attorneys Rick Calvert and Phelesa Guy are prosecuting the case. If convicted, each of them will face up to 20 years in federal prison.