Five more people were arrested Thursday in connection with the death of Robert De Niro’s grandson from a fentanyl overdose.
Grant McIver, Bruce Epperson, Eddie Barreto, John Nicolas and Roy Nicolas were charged in Manhattan Federal Court with running a drug distribution network that led to the deaths of three 19-year-olds across two months in 2023.
Two of the victims were De Niro’s grandson, Leandro Anthony De Niro-Rodriguez, and Akira Stein, the daughter of Blondie guitarist and co-founder Chris Stein, the DEA said in a press release.
Leandro De Niro, the son of De Niro’s daughter Drena, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on July 2, 2023. He died from an overdose of “fentanyl, bromazolam, alprazolam, 7-aminoclonazepam, ketamine and cocaine,” the city medical examiner ruled.
“Someone sold him fentanyl-laced pills that they knew were laced, yet still sold them to him,” Drena De Niro wrote on social media shortly after her son’s death.
About a month later, the first suspect in the case was arrested and accused of doing exactly that. Sophia Marks, then 20, was charged with three counts of narcotics distribution in connection with Leandro De Niro’s death.
“Marks knew the pills could kill, and she continued selling them anyway,” then-Manhattan District Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
McIver, Epperson, Barreto and the two Nicolases stand accused of distributing thousands of fake pills laced with fentanyl, alprazolam and other drugs, the feds said in charging documents.
The five suspects are accused of running three overlapping distribution networks in New York City and on Long Island, the DEA said. John Nicolas, 29, and Roy Nicolas, 23, sold the pills that killed Stein; while McIver, 24, Epperson, 24, and Barreto, 22, sold the pills that killed Leandro De Niro, according to the feds.
The dealers used social media platforms to “specifically target teenagers and young adults,” investigators said.
Leandro De Niro had just moved to New York from Aspen, Colo., after graduating from high school. He got an internship on Broadway and was in his Financial District apartment for just two days before his death.
The death of Akira Stein on May 30, 2023, was not revealed until two months later, when her father wrote about it on Facebook.
“She was wonderful and a bright place in the world. She had been struggling for a few years and addiction took her,” Chris Stein wrote. “Just remember her and be kind to each other and you young people please avoid this trap.”
Federal prosecutors said the charges involved deaths on May 30, June 13 and July 2. The second victim has only been identified as a 19-year-old male.
Throughout the city, authorities tallied 3,056 overdose deaths in 2023, a number that dropped to 2,192 such deaths in 2024.
With Molly Crane-Newman