United States Drug Enforcement Administration

LUBBOCK, TX – A former Texas Tech University professor who manufactured and distributed fentanyl — including a branded mixture known as “pink flamingo” — was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.

Daniel Taylor, 44, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix imposed the 480‑month sentence today. 

“Daniel Taylor exploited his position of trust and education to engage in the distribution of one of the deadliest drugs threatening our communities,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Joseph B. Tucker. “While he should have been helping shape the futures of young Americans, he was instead distributing a deadly poison that has devastated families across this country.”

“Daniel Taylor earned every year of his 40-year sentence,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould. “Taylor targeted and preyed on vulnerable women, enlisted some of them to help his drug supply chain, branded his poison as if it were a product sold off a shelf and showed a shocking disregard for human life.  Thank you to the agents and our AUSAs who removed him from our communities for the rest of his life so he can’t hurt or manipulate anyone else ever again.” 

According to court documents, Taylor was an assistant professor of supply chain management at Texas Tech’s Rawls College of Business when he began distributing fentanyl powder throughout the Lubbock area. He produced two fentanyl products: a potent white powder known as “ghost,” and “pink flamingo,” a fentanyl–bromazolam mixture that he dyed pink and packaged with flamingo‑branded stickers and envelopes.

Law enforcement began investigating Taylor in 2025. In January, agents observed Taylor meet with one of his distributors in a convenience‑store parking lot shortly before a passenger in the same vehicle overdosed and required emergency hospitalization.

During subsequent operations, agents executed search warrants and recovered fentanyl, bromazolam, methamphetamine, cocaine base, ketamine, and MDMA. They also found a heat‑sealing and packaging station, pink envelopes, flamingo stickers, and a handwritten recipe outlining the formula for “pink flamingo.”

Court documents show that Taylor provided fentanyl to multiple women in exchange for sex. Several women overdosed after consuming Taylor’s fentanyl products, including at least one who required multiple doses of Narcan administered in Taylor’s home. Messages obtained from Taylor’s phone showed him instructing associates to move drug discussions to encrypted applications and delete messages. Taylor referred to the women collectively as his “flamingos.”

Taylor is a previously federally convicted felon and had earlier been court‑martialed after using fraudulent documents and attempting to fake his own death.

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 Lubbock Resident Office, 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 J. Rancourt from the Lubbock Division prosecuted the case.