Woman sentenced to 20 months for role in juvenile fentanyl ODs in Carrollton, Flower Mound

A Carrollton woman was sentenced Wednesday to less than two years in federal prison for her role in distributing fentanyl-laced pills to minors in North Texas.

Magaly Mejia Cano, 30, was given 20 months in prison — with credit for the 13 months she’s already served — to be followed by six years of supervised release.

U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade presided over the case.

Wednesday’s hearing came more than a year after Cano and her boyfriend were arrested at their Carrollton home in February 2023.

She pleaded guilty in May to one count of distributing a controlled substance to a person under 21 years of age, meaning she faced up to 40 years in federal prison and a $2 million fine, according to a previous U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas news release.

Cano is one of 11 co-defendants who police say were part of a drug distribution scheme linked to at least a dozen juvenile overdoses, some fatal, in Carrollton and Flower Mound since September 2022.

The Dallas Morning News was first to report in February 2023 about a rash of North Texas students overdosing from fentanyl. At the time, three Carrollton-Farmers Branch students were among those who died. A fourth overdosed and died in June.

Cano’s attorney Kara Letisha Carreras argued that although it doesn’t excuse her actions, Cano played “a minor role” in the offense. Carreras said Cano, who had no previous arrests or convictions, only distributed 10 pills.

Cano spoke at her sentencing Wednesday in the Earle Cabell Federal Building, apologizing for her actions and saying she did not consider the impact on the families of the victims.

She said that while she cannot change the past, she wants to do the right thing moving forward for her four children and expressed a desire to participate in therapy and substance abuse treatment upon her release.

“I don’t want to lose any more time with them,” Cano said of her children.

After handing down the sentencing, Kinkeade said he wished Cano the best.

“Stay out of trouble,” he told her. “Pick your men better.”

The arrests

Cano was arrested with her boyfriend, Luis Eduardo Navarrete, inside the man’s Carrollton home in February 2023. Each were accused of distributing drugs to multiple people, many of them R.L. Turner high school students. Some who purchased the pills were juvenile dealers who then resold the drugs to other minors.

In plea papers, Cano said Navarrete stored counterfeit pills near the front door of their home and distributed them to customers who came by the house.

Cano said she distributed pills directly to customers, including a 16-year-old, on at least three occasions at Navarrete’s direction.

Cano was the first of the defendants in the drug distribution scheme to enter a guilty plea.

Navarrete agreed to plead guilty last year to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and selling drugs to someone under 21. He and two others are awaiting sentencing, and one defendant’s trial is pending.

Kinkeade has already sentenced five other defendants to prison terms ranging from five to 15 years depending on the severity of their role in the operation.

Another co-defendant is on the lam, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.