Two Arlington men received combined 80 years for sex trafficking a minor and distributing fentanyl, DOJ officials said.<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Two Arlington men were sentenced to a combined 80 years in federal prison for their roles in sex trafficking a juvenile female who had been reported as a runaway and to whom they supplied fentanyl, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).<\/p>\n
DOJ officials said 52-year-old Jamal Howard was sentenced to 600 months (50 years) on Jan. 30 for Sex Trafficking Through Force Fraud and Coercion, Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl, Distributing Fentanyl to a Person Under 21, and Conspiracy to Launder Monetary Instruments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Additionally, DOJ officials said 27-year-old Renaldo Rojas was sentenced to 360 months (30 years) for Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl and Distributing Fentanyl to a person under 21 on Jan. 15.<\/p>\n
Both men were indicted in June 2025 and pled guilty to the charges in October 2025, according to the DOJ.<\/p>\n
\u201cTragically, sex trafficking and drug trafficking are nearly always intertwined, escalating the horrific harm to victims in these cases,\u201d said United States Attorney Ryan Raybould. \u201cI applaud the tremendous work of HSI and Arlington Police Department that led to the victim\u2019s rescue in this case. We embrace the difficult work removing prolific traffickers from our community\u2019s streets and continue to pursue justice to the fullest extent against these types of offenders.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis intensely gratifying 50-year sentence reflects the seriousness of Howard\u2019s crimes and the unwavering commitment of law enforcement to protect our children and our communities,\u201d said HSI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard. \u201cThe outcome is the result of outstanding teamwork and dedication from our agents, the Arlington Police Department, and our federal partners. Let this sentence serve as a warning: Those who traffic minors and distribute deadly narcotics will be brought to justice and face the full consequences of their actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to plea documents, in late July 2024, a female minor had been reported as a runaway to the Arlington Police Department. Rojas provided the minor with fentanyl and sent Howard, a known trafficker, photos of the minor, offering to connect Howard with the minor in exchange for fentanyl, the DOJ said in a release. After providing bags of fentanyl pills to Rojas, Howard transported the girl to his apartment, supplied her with fentanyl, had her photographed, and posted commercial sex advertisements for the victim on a website used for engaging in commercial sex transactions, the DOJ said.<\/p>\n
Court records showed that Howard trafficked the victim to several people in late July through Aug. 1, 2024. Howard also distributed fentanyl to Rojas during this period, the DOJ said. Communications found on Howard\u2019s phone reflect messages with Rojas discussing fentanyl transactions totaling more than 5,000 fentanyl pills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Aug. 1, 2024, members from the North Texas Trafficking Force, including agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the Arlington Police Department, recovered the girl in an apartment in Arlington, along with evidence of Howard\u2019s large-scale fentanyl distribution to Rojas and others, the DOJ said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two additional individuals were convicted and sentenced for their roles in Howard\u2019s drug trafficking activity. Elnora Jordan, 63, of Arlington, Texas, pled guilty in October 2025 to conspiring to launder monetary instruments related to proceeds generated from Howard\u2019s fentanyl sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to plea documents, Jordan accepted payments from Howard\u2019s fentanyl customers using an app on her phone, transferred the funds to her bank account, and withdrew cash that she gave to Howard. She was sentenced on Feb. 3 to 21 months in federal prison. Court records also showed that Yolanda Gonzales, 23, of Hurst, was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison on Jan. 22 after pleading guilty in October 2025 for using her cellphone to communicate with Howard about purchasing and distributing fentanyl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Arlington men received combined 80 years for sex trafficking a minor and distributing fentanyl, DOJ officials said.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-152928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}