A former assistant professor for Texas Tech University has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for manufacturing and distributing fentanyl.
Daniel Taylor, a marketing and supply chain management professor, was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty to “conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl” in July.
The federal investigation into Taylor was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Caprock High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, which began in June 2025. He was charged in February 2026.
Taylor was employed by Texas Tech during the entire duration of the drug trafficking scheme, admitting that his “educational background and expertise” helped to “further or advance his fentanyl distribution network.”
“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.”
After obtaining a search warrant in February 2026 and surveilling Taylor’s home and activities, federal agents discovered that Taylor not only possessed “various quantities of fentanyl, bromazolam, cocaine base (also known as crack cocaine), methamphetamine, ketamine, and 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA),” but also marketed his own narcotic mixture called “pink flamingo.”
According to court documents, the pink flamingo concoction was made by “mixing ghost with bromazolam and would mix the substances with water and red food coloring,” which turned the narcotic powder mixture pink.
Taylor admitted to selling fentanyl for at least two years to “three different prostitutes several times a week” and to trading the drug for sex.
“Daniel Taylor earned every year of his 40-year sentence,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas 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.”
The Northern District of Texas noted that Taylor was previously a federally convicted felon who had been court-martialed for “using fraudulent documents and attempting to fake his own death.”
