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.
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.
The Justice Department said Taylor was a previously federally convicted felon. 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 .
‘Pink flamingo’ operation exposed during investigation
Law enforcement agencies began investigating him in 2025.
Taylor began distributing fentanyl powder across the Lubbock area while working as a university professor , according to court documents cited by the Justice Department. In January, investigators observed Taylor meeting one of his distributors in a convenience-store parking lot. Shortly afterwards, a passenger in the same vehicle overdosed and required emergency hospitalization. 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.
