(New York) Four drug traffickers, suspected of having sold heroin cut with fentanyl, a cocktail which is wreaking havoc in the United States and which caused the death of American actor Michael K. Williams, have been arrested arrested, Manhattan federal prosecutor Damian Williams announced Wednesday.
Posted at 5:31 p.m.
The four men, suspected of carrying out their traffic on the streets of the Williamsburg neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn, were arrested on Tuesday and charged with drug trafficking.
One of them, Irving Cartagena, also known as “Green Eyes” and arrested in Puerto Rico, is the one who “we believe sold the lethal dose of drugs to Michael K. Williams”, famous for having played Omar Little, one of the most popular characters in the cult series TheWire (Bugged) by David Simon, the prosecutor announced in a press release.
Michael K. Williams, 54, was found dead at his home in Williamsburg on September 6 and medical examiners concluded an “accidental” overdose of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.
According to the indictment, the main suspect was identified on CCTV footage and then on his Instagram account by investigators.
“Deadly opiates like fentanyl and heroin don’t care who you are or what you’ve accomplished. They only fuel addiction and lead to tragedy”, commented Damian Williams, referring to a “public health crisis”.
Fentanyl is at the heart of the opioid crisis that has been wreaking havoc in the United States for years. This synthetic opiate, approved for the treatment of severe pain, especially in advanced cancer, is “50 to 100 times more potent than morphine”, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
But it also floods the drug market and causes thousands of overdoses. Between April 2020 and April 2021, the United States had 100,306 fatal overdoses, an increase of 28.5% compared to the same period the previous year (78,056 deaths).
The producers of opiate-based painkillers are also accused of having encouraged, with aggressive marketing strategies, the over-prescription of their products despite their highly addictive nature.