The DEA, NYPD, Homeland Security and the US Attorney for the Southern District of NY announced today the indictment of five suspects in the overdose death of Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, the 19-year-old grandson of actor Robert De Niro, and two other teenagers.
Rodriguez died July 2 from the toxic effects of a drug combination that included fentanyl, bromazolam, alprazolam, 7-aminoclonazepam, ketamine and cocaine, New York City’s medical examiner disclosed in August.
Today’s indictment charges Bruce Epperson, Eddie Barreto, Grant McIver, John Nicolas and Roy Nicolas with participating in a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and other drugs that caused the overdose deaths of De Niro-Rodriguez, a second unidentified victim and Akira Stein. All of the victims were 19 years old. The charges carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
According to Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton, the defendants ran a fentanyl-distribution network that sold pills to teens and young adults “relying heavily on social media to target young drug users.” Specifically, they are accused of distributing “mixtures and substances containing 400 grams and more of fentanyl, mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of para-fluorofentanyl, and mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of alprazolam.”
The documents allege that, during a single three-month period in the summer of 2023, the pills distributed by the defendants caused at least three deaths.
Specifically:
On or about May 30, 2023, Stein — who is identified in the Indictment as Victim-1 — died in her family’s apartment in downtown Manhattan after ingesting fentanyl-laced pills that she had purchased from John Nicolas and Roy Nicolas one day earlier. Over the six months leading up to her fatal overdose, John Nicolas and Roy Nicolas repeatedly sold numerous fentanyl-laced pills to Stein. Stein suffered multiple non-fatal overdoses as a result of ingesting those pills.
Approximately two weeks after Stein’s fatal overdose, on or about June 13, 2023, a second victim — identified in the Indictment as Victim-2 — died in his family’s apartment in midtown Manhattan after snorting a crushed pill that was laced with fentanyl and an even more potent fentanyl analogue that was provided to him by CC-1, which CC-1 had obtained from McIver.
Less than a month after Victim-2’s death, on or about July 2, 2023, De Niro-Rodriguez — who is identified in the Indictment as Victim-3 — died of a fatal overdose inside a friend’s downtown-Manhattan apartment after ingesting a fentanyl-laced pill that he purchased from CC-1 the day before. At that time, CC-1 was selling pills provided to CC-1 by McIver, Epperson, and Barreto.
De Niro-Rodriguez, a sometime actor who had appeared in Bradley Cooper’s 2018 A Star Is Born. Robert De Niro said at the time of the young man’s death that he was “deeply distressed by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo.”
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