Five people have been arrested in connection with Robert De Niro’s grandson Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez’s fatal drug overdose in 2023.
ABC News reported on Thursday, October 30, that Grant McIver, Bruce Epperson, Eddie Barreto, John Nicolas and Roy Nicolas were detained on charges of selling counterfeit prescription opioid pills laced with fentanyl and other drugs to affluent teenagers in New York City. The five new defendants were allegedly part of a criminal network that distributed thousands of the tainted pills, according to prosecutors.
The indictment did not directly name the group’s victims but law enforcement sources confirmed to the outlet that Leandro and the late Akira Stein — daughter of Blondie cofounder and guitarist Chris Stein — were among those who died from the counterfeit prescription drugs.
Sophia Marks was previously charged in September 2023 with three counts of distribution of narcotics in connection with Leandro’s death. She was reportedly given the nickname “Percocet Princess” for her alleged drug connections prior to her arrest.
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Us Weekly has reached out to Robert’s spokesperson for comment.
According to the New York City medical examiner’s office, Leandro died at age 19 from a lethal combination of fentanyl, bromazolam, alprazolam, 7-aminoclonazepam, ketamine and cocaine in July 2023. NYPD officers found the 19-year-old unresponsive when they answered an emergency call in Lower Manhattan and later pronounced him dead.
Robert and his ex-wife Diahnne Abbott’s daughter Drena De Niro released a heartwrenching statement to confirm the death of her only son at the time.
“My beautiful sweet angel. I have loved you beyond words or description from the moment I felt you in my belly. You have been my joy, my heart and all that was ever pure and real in my life,” Drena, 58, wrote via Instagram in July 2023. “I wish I was with you right now. I wish I was with you.”
She continued. “I don’t know how to live without you but I’ll try to go on and spread the love and light that you so made me feel in getting to be your mama. You were so deeply loved and appreciated and I wish that love alone could have saved you 😞.”
The following day, Robert, 82, said that he was “deeply distressed” in his first public comments about his grandson Leandro’s tragic death.
“We’re greatly appreciative of the condolences from everyone. We ask that we please be given privacy to grieve our loss of Leo,” he requested.
In February 2024, the Meet the Parents actor reflected on his “disbelief” over Leandro’s overdose, acknowledging that it was “just a shock” for his entire family.
“[I] never thought it would happen,” he told People.
The two-time Academy Award winner admitted that he often wondered whether he’d done enough to help his grandson.
“I just then started thinking about all the things I could have, should have done maybe with him,” Robert said. “I don’t know if that would’ve made a difference. And so that’s always playing through my mind. … It shouldn’t have happened.”
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Robert is a father of seven children. He shares eldest daughter Drena and son Raphael De Niro from his 12-year marriage to Abbott, which ended in divorce in 1988. During his eight-year relationship with model Toukie Smith, the couple welcomed twins Julian and Airyn.
The Taxi Driver star also shares two children — Elliot and Helen — from his second marriage to Grace Hightower, which lasted from 1997 to 2018. Robert became a father again at 79 when he and his girlfriend Tiffany Chen welcomed daughter Gia Virginia Chen-De Niro in April 2023.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
