Former Texas Tech Professor Pleads Guilty to Running Fentanyl Trafficking Conspiracy

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A former Texas Tech marketing and supply chain professor pled guilty today for his leadership role in a fentanyl distribution conspiracy, announced United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould.

Daniel Taylor, 51, of Lubbock, Texas, was charged in February 2026 with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl. On July 1, 2026, he pled guilty to conspiring to distribute more than 40 grams of fentanyl. During the entire scope of the conspiracy, Taylor was employed as an assistant professor of marketing and supply chain management at the Texas Tech University Rawls College of Business. He admitted in court documents that his educational background and expertise in supply chain management helped to further or advance his fentanyl distribution network.

"Taylor utilized his education and background in supply chain management to build and operate his own supply chain of dangerous narcotics in the Lubbock area, primarily dealing out of the Executive Inn," said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould. "With his pink flamingo and ghost branding of fentanyl, he also drugged prostitutes to fuel his own sexual desires. I expect-and we will certainly be asking for-a severe prison sentence to hold him accountable for the harm he caused our community."

"This defendant exploited the knowledge and credibility he gained as a university professor to build a fentanyl trafficking operation that put lives at risk throughout the Lubbock community," said Special Agent in Charge Joseph B. Tucker of the DEA Dallas Field Division. "DEA and our law enforcement partners remain committed to identifying and dismantling the criminal networks responsible for distributing fentanyl, and we will continue pursuing those who profit from this deadly poison."

According to court documents, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Caprock High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force began investigating Taylor and others in June 2025, after receiving information that a Texas Tech professor named "Dan" was distributing fentanyl powder in Lubbock.

In January 2026, agents were conducting surveillance on Taylor when they observed him leave his residence with a female. They followed Taylor and the female as Taylor drove (them) to the Executive Inn in Lubbock. At the Executive Inn, Taylor and the female picked up a second female. Agents learned that, while this second female was in custody in September 2025, Taylor created an account through the jail electronic messaging system and used it to put money on her jail account and to arrange to pick her up upon her release from jail.

Shortly thereafter, agents obtained a court order to place a GPS tracking device on Taylor's vehicle.

On January 12, 2026, agents and watched Taylor leave his residence and travel to a convenience store off Frankford Avenue. Inside the store, Taylor made contact with the female he previously picked up at the Executive Inn, who followed Taylor outside and entered Taylor's vehicle for less than a minute before exiting and returning to her vehicle, some of which is depicted below:

Agents believed they had witnessed a narcotics transaction and conducted a traffic stop on the female's vehicle. As a Lubbock County Sheriff's Office deputy approached the vehicle, the occupants began telling the deputy that there was a male in the back seat experiencing a drug overdose. Paramedics arrived and transported the individual to the University Medical Center (UMC) hospital in Lubbock. The individual required endotracheal intubation and was intubated for approximately three days. The individual's treating physician stated that he was experiencing imminent, life-threatening deterioration as a result of an opioid overdose.

Subsequent investigation revealed that Taylor had just distributed two different types of fentanyl powder to the female: white fentanyl powder, marketed as "ghost," and a pink powder that the DEA laboratory determined to be a combination of fentanyl and bromazoloam, a benzodiazepine that was emergency scheduled by the DEA as a Schedule I controlled substance in March 2026. Taylor marketed the pink powder as "pink flamingo." The individuals in the vehicle began consuming the drugs immediately after obtaining it from Taylor, causing the individual's overdose.

On February 17, 2026, agents were conducting surveillance on Taylor when they observed another female leaving his house with fentanyl powder. Agents obtained a search warrant for Taylor's residence, where the found a station containing a heat-sealer, multiple clear and pink plastic baggies, and a handwritten note describing the recipe for "flamingo," which was indicated to be 60% "ghost" fentanyl powder and "8mg bromazoloam per point (appx. 2 Xanax bars). Inside a Pelican case, agents found numerous containers of suspected fentanyl powder, baggies with stickers of scissors on them containing a white powdery substance. Agents also located a pink container with several doses of Narcan. Flamingo-related paraphernalia, including small flamingo stickers, keychains, and pink envelopes. Inside the kitchen, agents found a sign with cartoon flamingos holding cocktails. Various items were seized during the execution of the search warrant, some of which are depicted below:

The drugs were analyzed by the DEA laboratory and confirmed Taylor's possession of various quantities of fentanyl, bromazoloam, cocaine base (also known as crack cocaine), methamphetamine, ketamine, and 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).

Inside Taylor's home office, agents observed that his computer monitor displayed a photograph of a young adult female dressed in lingerie and posing on Taylor's bed. Subsequent investigation revealed that Taylor was providing fentanyl powder to prostitutes in exchange for sex. Three different cooperating sources independently stated the following: that females would arrange to meet with Taylor at his residence through text messaging applications. Upon their arrival, Taylor would have a small quantity of fentanyl powder, and sometimes methamphetamine, out on his kitchen counter. The women would consume the narcotics and would then be directed to shower in Taylor's bathroom, where he would often have a gift basket that included lingerie, a toothbrush, a razor, and perfume. The women would shower and put on the lingerie, and Taylor would often photograph the women in the lingerie before having sex with them. Taylor would then provide the women with additional fentanyl powder, and occasionally cocaine, methamphetamine, or MDMA, and they would leave.

In total, Taylor admitted to distributing fentanyl powder to three different prostitutes several times a week for at least two years, and that he had been selling "pink flamingo" fentanyl powder for approximately eight months. Taylor was told by the women that the ghost fentanyl powder was causing people to overdose. Taylor then started mixing ghost with bromazoloam and would mix the substances with water and red food coloring, which would turn the powder pink. Taylor chose to call and market the substance as "pink flamingo." Taylor would put cartoon flamingo stickers on his product and conceal the narcotics inside different types of snack and candy packaging and would heat-seal the packages to make it look as though the packages had never been opened.

Taylor referred to the prostitutes as his "flamingo fam" and that he had a plan to purchase a house for himself and the prostitutes to all live together.

Confidential sources confirmed that several individuals had overdosed on fentanyl supplied by Taylor and had to be administered Narcan. On one occasion, a prostitute overdosed on fentanyl at Taylor's house, and Taylor had to administer two doses of Narcan to revive her. In total, Taylor admitted to causing at least eight overdoses on fentanyl powder he had supplied. On one coconspirator's phone, agents found a video taken in 2025 of an adult male appearing to suffer from a drug overdose. During the recording, the camera panned to drugs and drug paraphernalia on a table, including a clear plastic baggie with a flamingo sticker, as depicted below:

Taylor remains in federal custody pending sentencing before United States District Judge James Wesley Hendrix. The date for the sentencing hearing is currently pending. Taylor faces a statutory maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison and a $5,000,000 fine.

This investigation was a joint operation of the Texas Anti-Gang Center and the Caprock Hi-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. This group is composed of agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Lubbock County Sheriff's Office, and the Lubbock Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Rancourt is prosecuting the case.