By admin 
Five men have been arrested and indicted over the 2023 overdose death of Robert De Niro’s grandson, 19-year-old Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, after a federal investigation alleged a social-media-fuelled network supplied thousands of counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl to teenagers and young adults across New York City. Prosecutors said the defendants — identified as Bruce Epperson,…
Five men have been arrested and indicted over the 2023 overdose death of Robert De Niro’s grandson, 19-year-old Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, after a federal investigation alleged a social-media-fuelled network supplied thousands of counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl to teenagers and young adults across New York City.
Prosecutors said the defendants — identified as Bruce Epperson, Eddie Barreto, Grant McIver, and brothers John and Roy Nicolas — conspired to distribute controlled substances that caused the deaths of three 19-year-olds within a matter of weeks in the summer of 2023, including De Niro-Rodriguez and Akira Stein, the daughter of Blondie co-founder Chris Stein.
Each is charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, para-fluorofentanyl and alprazolam resulting in death, a felony that carries a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison if convicted.
Authorities said the group marketed and sold counterfeit prescription opioids via mainstream social platforms and encrypted messaging apps, reaching buyers far beyond their own neighbourhoods.
In court documents and public statements, investigators described a pattern in which the defendants allegedly pushed pills represented as oxycodone or Xanax that in fact contained fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin.
The case file ties the network’s activities to a cluster of fatal overdoses among teenagers, alleging that the pills linked to the five men had “deadly consequences” across a three-month span.
The arrests were executed in multiple jurisdictions. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division, Epperson was taken into custody in Troy, New York, and McIver was arrested in Houston, Texas.
John Nicolas was arrested in Buffalo, New York, and his brother Roy in Valley Stream on Long Island; Barreto surrendered in Manhattan. All five have made initial court appearances. Prosecutors allege the network’s sales were orchestrated and amplified online, with buyers contacted or cultivated on apps popular with teenagers, then directed to hand-to-hand exchanges.
Law enforcement officials said the investigation followed the sequence of three teen deaths in 2023: a 19-year-old woman who warned one defendant after surviving an overdose that a supplied batch might be “extra strong,” only to die in a subsequent incident; Stein, who died two weeks later; and De Niro-Rodriguez, who died less than a month after that.
The timeline, outlined in federal filings and summarised publicly, forms the backbone of the conspiracy-resulting-in-death charge and reflects the government’s contention that the defendants knew or should have known about the lethal potency of the counterfeit pills they continued to sell.
DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino said investigators have seen drug trafficking groups “weaponize social media in a way that allows them to expand their network, make more profits and, unfortunately, get more people addicted to their poison.”
His comments accompanied the arrests and were framed as an explanation of why the case swept in activity across several platforms and boroughs before drawing in buyers who were barely out of school.
De Niro-Rodriguez was found dead at his Manhattan apartment on 2 July 2023. The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner later ruled the death accidental, citing the toxic effects of fentanyl, bromazolam, alprazolam, 7-aminoclonazepam, ketamine and cocaine. That combination, public health officials have repeatedly warned, has become tragically common in cases where counterfeit tablets sold as common anxiolytics or painkillers contain fentanyl or designer benzodiazepines that dramatically increase the risk of respiratory depression.
In the days after her son’s death, actor-producer Drena De Niro wrote that “someone sold [Leandro] fentanyl-laced pills that they knew were laced yet still sold them to him,” a statement she posted on Instagram that set the tone for the family’s public stance and aligned with what investigators would go on to allege in federal complaints.
Robert De Niro, the teenager’s grandfather, said at the time, “I’m deeply distressed by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo,” and asked for privacy for the family as authorities pursued the source of the pills. Those remarks resurfaced this week as the arrests were announced.
The federal action builds on an earlier case in July 2023, when authorities arrested 20-year-old Sofia Haley Marks, known by the street moniker “Percocet Princess,” on narcotics distribution charges arising from sales allegedly tied to De Niro-Rodriguez’s death.
Her charges — counts of distributing fentanyl and alprazolam — were filed after undercover work and phone-based evidence connected supplied pills to the overdose. While that case preceded the current indictment, the five newly arrested defendants are accused of running a broader distribution pipeline whose reach extended to multiple victims and whose methods mirrored a shift in the city’s street trade from physical corners to digital storefronts.
Prosecutors said the network targeted a demographic particularly vulnerable to counterfeit pills: teenagers and young adults who believed they were buying regulated pharmaceuticals and who often consumed them in social settings with little awareness of lethal adulterants.
The indictment alleges that the defendants obtained bulk quantities of pressed tablets and moved them through a loose hierarchy of sellers, advertising availability and arranging drops in private messages.
Investigators highlighted the role of fentanyl and its analog para-fluorofentanyl, as well as alprazolam, in the pills seized during the probe, noting that fatal outcomes were likely when users took the tablets as though they were standard doses of branded medication.
Beyond De Niro-Rodriguez, authorities identified two additional victims in the case narrative: Stein, who died in May 2023 and whose father later marked the loss publicly, and a third 19-year-old whose name was not released. Officials said the three deaths occurred within roughly one month of one another and were linked by overlapping supply routes traced back to the same alleged network. The clustering of fatalities, prosecutors contend, shows that the defendants continued to move product even after receiving warnings that earlier sales had triggered overdoses.
Announcing the arrests, officials emphasised the way the alleged sales apparatus exploited the scale and anonymity of modern platforms.
The complaint describes posts and private messages that advertised pills with brand-coded slang, followed by instructions for encrypted chats and meet-ups near transit hubs, parks and residential blocks.
In one episode described by prosecutors, a surviving victim messaged a seller to caution that a recent batch caused an overdose and asked that “customers [be] warned”; the complaint alleges the supplier kept selling. Investigators said such exchanges, combined with location data and undercover purchases, helped map the network’s spread.
The legal stakes are severe. The conspiracy-resulting-in-death charge carries a 20-year mandatory minimum upon conviction and can rise to life in prison, reflecting a policy priority to treat fentanyl-poisoning cases with the same seriousness as other forms of lethal trafficking.
Prosecutors said the five defendants were part of a “criminal network” that “distributed thousands of counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl,” language signalling a case aimed not only at individual sales but at the structure that enabled them. Defence counsel for the men either could not be reached or did not immediately comment after the initial court appearances.
The medical findings in De Niro-Rodriguez’s case underscore the complexity of modern overdoses. The medical examiner’s report documented fentanyl alongside benzodiazepines — including bromazolam and its metabolite 7-aminoclonazepam — and stimulants, a poly-substance pattern that magnifies risk even in low doses and makes resuscitation more difficult. Public health officials have warned that counterfeit tablets can contain inconsistent fentanyl loads, rendering harm-reduction strategies reliant on user familiarity with dosage largely ineffective.
The presence of ketamine and cocaine in the toxicology adds further volatility, particularly when combined with clandestinely pressed benzodiazepines that suppress breathing.
For the De Niro family, Thursday’s developments represent a significant milestone after two years of grief and sporadic updates. Drena De Niro’s early public statements framed her son’s death as part of a wider fentanyl crisis claiming young lives with little warning; the arrests align with that portrayal by focusing on counterfeit pills presented as familiar medications.
The family did not issue a fresh public statement at the time of the arrest announcement, but their prior remarks — an appeal for privacy and a call for accountability — were widely recirculated as the case moved forward.
Investigators said the men’s activities mirrored broader trends visible in New York since the pandemic, when street-level distribution patterns shifted towards online contact and encrypted coordination. The complaint alleges that the five defendants exploited that environment, using app-based discovery tools and disappearing-message features to reach new buyers and insulate themselves from routine enforcement.
The alleged reliance on counterfeit pressed pills, rather than powder, fit a pattern of sales calibrated to a younger clientele that sees tablets as less risky even when sourced from strangers. Police and federal agents said that strategy makes post-overdose investigations heavily dependent on digital evidence and on rapid toxicology, both of which featured in this case.
Authorities also pointed to the speed with which the three teen victims died in sequence, arguing it underscored the need for aggressive intervention once a lethal batch is identified.
Prosecutors said they would introduce evidence that at least one victim attempted to warn a seller before later dying, and that the network nonetheless continued to move product. In public comments, Tarentino linked that allegation to a broader warning about pill markets that look legitimate but operate entirely outside any pharmaceutical chain of custody.
The arrests come more than two years after the earlier detention of Marks, the alleged small-scale dealer whose case centred on direct sales to De Niro-Rodriguez. That case, officials said, provided investigative leads and context but did not fully account for the pipeline of counterfeit tablets into the city’s youth culture.
Prosecutors now argue the five defendants supplied that pipeline, sourcing and distributing pills in quantities that suggest sustained operations rather than isolated transactions. With the indictment handed up and initial appearances complete, prosecutors signalled further procedural steps in the Southern District of New York as the case moves towards arraignment and discovery.
Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, who appeared with his mother in the 2018 films “A Star Is Born” and “Cabaret Maxime,” was among a cohort of young New Yorkers whose deaths prompted renewed warnings to families about counterfeit tablets circulating far from the traditional heroin markets.
His mother’s message, posted in the first shock of loss, captured the essential allegation now at the heart of the federal case: that fentanyl-adulterated pills were sold to a teenager under the guise of safety. The indictment and arrests announced this week represent the government’s attempt to hold an alleged supply chain responsible for that deception and its consequences.
Officials said the investigation remains active. While the indictment describes a discrete group of defendants in connection with three deaths, law enforcement has separately brought charges against others in overlapping operations targeting street-to-social-media pipelines.
For families who lost children in 2023, the federal case offers a measure of progress and a public accounting of how a small collection of accounts and avatars can translate into lethal sales at kitchen tables and on city streets. For the defendants, it marks the start of a legal process in which the government will seek to demonstrate that their conduct met the strict threshold for liability when distribution results in death.
If the facts outlined by prosecutors are proven, the case would stand as another example of how the fentanyl era has collapsed the distance between casual pill-buying and catastrophic harm — and how investigators now follow that harm backwards through phones and platforms to the people accused of profiting from it.