5 alleged drug sellers are going through felony costs for his or her involvement within the dying of Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, the grandson of appearing legend Robert De Niro.
A federal grand jury in New York indicted the quintet on Tuesday, every on a single felony depend of conspiracy to distribute managed substances leading to dying, in response to court docket paperwork filed within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors allege the boys had been “members of a legal community that distributed hundreds of counterfeit prescription tablets laced with fentanyl, amongst different medicine” to younger adults and youngsters dwelling in New York Metropolis.
The boys arrested by New York officers this week — recognized as Grant McIver, Bruce Epperson, Eddie Barreto, John Nicolas and Roy Nicolas — allegedly used social media to promote the medicine. Prosecutors underscored that the boys’s “drug dealing had lethal penalties: over a three-month span in the summertime of 2023,” alleging their medicine led to the deaths of three 19-year-olds.
Although the indictment didn’t disclose the victims’ identities, regulation enforcement confirmed the deaths embody De Niro-Rodriguez’s in July 2023, in response to a number of reviews. On the time of her son’s dying, actor-producer Drena De Niro — the Oscar winner’s eldest daughter with ex-wife Diahnne Abbott — stated “somebody offered [Leandro] fentanyl-laced tablets that they knew had been laced but nonetheless offered them to him.”
A month after the younger “A Star Is Born” actor’s dying, the New York Metropolis Workplace of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed De Niro-Rodriguez died of an unintentional drug overdose, noting he succumbed to the poisonous results of fentanyl, bromazolam, alprazolam, 7-aminoclonazepam, ketamine and cocaine.
Akira Stein, daughter of Blondie co-founder Chris Stein, was additionally an alleged sufferer. Stein introduced his daughter’s dying in July 2023, months after she died “on the finish of Could to an overdose.”
“The DEA and US Legal professional people from the NYC Southern District have been actually very sympathetic and respectful all by means of this course of and I can’t thank them sufficient for this hope of some justice for her,” Stein wrote in response to information of the arrests Thursday. “Please watch out.”
Shortly after De Niro-Rodriguez’s dying, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York confirmed that regulation enforcement had arrested a girl, an alleged drug seller referred to as the “Percocet Princess,” for her suspected connection along with his dying. She was arrested on costs of promoting medicine to De Niro-Rodriguez.
In a July 2023 assertion, “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Raging Bull” star De Niro stated, “I’m deeply distressed by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo.”
“We’re significantly appreciative of the condolences from everybody,” he stated. “We ask that we please be given privateness to grieve our lack of Leo.”
