A former Texas Tech University professor has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for manufacturing and distributing fentanyl, including a pink-colored mixture branded as “pink flamingo”, after several women overdosed on drugs supplied by him, the US Department of Justice said on October 23.
The case was investigated by a joint operation involving the Texas Anti-Gang Center and the Caprock High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, with personnel from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Texas Department of Public Safety, Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office and Lubbock Police Department. He had also been court-martialed after using fraudulent documents and attempting to fake his own death . Daniel Taylor, 51, a former assistant professor of supply chain management at Texas Tech’s Rawls College of Business , pleaded guilty on July 1 to conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl. US District Judge James Wesley Hendrix sentenced him to 480 months in prison, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said in an official announcement. Taylor’s 40-year sentence means he will spend decades in federal prison for the fentanyl trafficking conspiracy.
The Justice Department said Taylor was a previously federally convicted felon.
‘Pink flamingo’ operation exposed during investigation
Court records showed that Taylor supplied fentanyl to multiple women in exchange for sex. Several women overdosed after consuming his products, including at least one who required multiple doses of Narcan while at Taylor’s home.
Taylor began distributing fentanyl powder across the Lubbock area while working as a university professor , according to court documents cited by the Justice Department.
