A former professor at Texas Tech University has admitted to packaging, marketing, and distributing fentanyl, often in exchange for sex.
According to a Tuesday news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas, 51-year-old Daniel Taylor of Lubbock, Texas, a now-former assistant professor of marketing and supply chain management at the Texas Tech University Rawls College of Business, pleaded guilty Tuesday “for his leadership role in a fentanyl distribution conspiracy.”
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould made the announcement.
“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,” Raybould said. “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.”
The former business professor now faces a statutory maximum penalty of 40 years in federal prison and a $5 million fine.
Using his marketing and supply-chain expertise, investigators said, Taylor branded and distributed two types of fentanyl.
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The first type, a white powder that he called “ghost,” caused people to overdose, and he reportedly knew it.
The second type, a pink powder that he called “pink flamingo,” came with cartoon flamingo stickers on snack and candy packaging, which Taylor heat-sealed to conceal the illegal contents, according to police.
Taylor also distributed the drugs to fuel his sexual fantasies.
In fact, for at least two years, he distributed fentanyl several times per week to three different prostitutes. He called them his “flamingo fam” and planned to purchase a house in which he and the prostitutes could live.
Moreover, when the prostitutes arrived at his home, Taylor put them through a semi-elaborate ritual.
First, he gave them narcotics. Then, he instructed them to shower in his bathroom. There, a gift basket full of lingerie, perfume, and other personal items awaited them.
Before having sex with the women, Taylor would often photograph them in the lingerie. Afterward, he would give them fentanyl and other narcotics before they left his home.
State and federal authorities, including the Drug Enforcement Agency, began investigating Taylor in June 2025.
In January, agents conducting surveillance on Taylor’s home watched him leave and followed him to a convenience store, where he made contact with a female they recognized from past surveillance. The woman spent less than a minute in his vehicle before returning to her own vehicle and driving away.
Agents then conducted a traffic stop on the woman’s vehicle. Inside, they found a male in the back seat suffering from a drug overdose.
“The individual required endotracheal intubation and was intubated for approximately three days,” the press release read. “The individual’s treating physician stated that he was experiencing imminent, life-threatening deterioration as a result of an opioid overdose.”
Agents subsequently learned that the female had received both “ghost” and “pink flamingo” fentanyl powder from Taylor.
All told, the former business professor had been distributing “pink flamingo” for approximately eight months.
The news release gave no indication that Taylor ever preyed on Texas Tech students.
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