A major source of supply in the Carrollton juvenile fentanyl overdose case, which has claimed the lives of four children to date, was sentenced today to 15 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.
Julio Gonzales, Jr., a 19-year-old who called himself “J-Money,” was charged via criminal complaint in July 2023. He pleaded guilty in October 2023 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a Schedule II controlled substance (fentanyl) and was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade.
“This defendant – a heavily-armed, prolific drug trafficker – was involved in providing pills that caused 14 Carrollton kids to overdose, and four of them to die,” said U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton. “I want to implore our community: Please, educate your children on the dangers of fentanyl. Drug traffickers are not your friends. They know one pill can kill, and they hand them over anyway.”
“Julio Gonzalez will spend the next 15 years in federal prison because of his involvement in supplying and distributing poison in the form of one deadly pill. Because of that same pill, illicit fentanyl, lives have been lost and families have been forever changed,” said DEA Dallas Special Agent in Charge Eduardo A. Chávez. “The women and men of DEA Dallas will never stop investigating overdose and poisoning deaths and bring those responsible to justice. We all must do our part to prevent and educate others that truly One Pill Can Kill.”
According to evidence presented at Wednesday’s hearing, Mr. Gonzales was one of three main sources of supply for Luis Eduardo Navarrete, the 22-year-old dealer who supplied fentanyl to students at R.L. Turner High School, Dewitt Perry Middle School, and Dan Long Middle School.
(Mr. Navarrete was sentenced last week to 20 years in federal prison after prosecutors introduced evidence showing that he blatantly ignored a text message, “another youngin dead bro,” alerting him to multiple child overdoses. One of Mr. Navarrete’s other main sources of supply, Jason Xavier Villanueva, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and distribution of fentanyl to a person under 21 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison; his third source, Jessie Alexander Perez Martinez, is awaiting trial.)
In plea papers, Mr. Gonzales admitted he trafficked blue M-30 pills laced with fentanyl to Mr. Navarrete, Navarrete’s drug runner Robert Gaitan, and at least one juvenile dealer. He stipulated that he trafficked approximately 120,000 pills over the course of the conspiracy, often selling them in “K Packs,” which consisted of 1,000 pills at a time.
When he was arrested on July 20, agents searched his Dallas home and seized from 16,000 counterfeit M-30 pills from his microwave, $74,294 in drug proceeds from shoe boxes in his bedroom, and at least nine firearms, including a Romanian Draco AK-47 style handgun, a Kel-Tec long-range pistol, and a Glock equipped with a machinegun conversion device. They also recovered numerous high-capacity magazines, body armor, a vacuum sealer, digital scales, a money counter, and multiple cell phones.
Mr. Gonzales, Jr. is one of 11 defendants charged federally in connection with the case, which has resulted in 14 juvenile overdoses, four of them fatal, of children as young as 13.
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 U.S. Attorneys Rick Calvert and Phelesa Guy are prosecuting the case.
Note: Illicitly produced, fentanyl-laced pills often look similar to legitimate prescription pills like Oxycontin or Percocet, but can pose significantly more danger. On the street, these pills are often referred to as “M30s” (a reference to the markings on some of the pills), “blues,” “perks,” “yerks,” “china girls,” or “TNT.” DEA research shows that six out of ten pills laced with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose. One pill can kill. For resources, visit https://www.dea.gov/onepill.
