{"id":24763,"date":"2025-11-01T01:19:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T01:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/24763\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T01:19:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T01:19:23","slug":"5-more-arrested-in-overdose-death-of-robert-de-niros-grandson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/24763\/","title":{"rendered":"5 more arrested in overdose death of Robert De Niro\u2019s grandson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five more people were arrested Thursday in connection with the death of Robert De Niro\u2019s grandson from a fentanyl overdose<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grant McIver, Bruce Epperson, Eddie Barreto, John Nicolas and Roy Nicolas were charged in Manhattan Federal Court with running a drug distribution network<\/a> that led to the deaths of three 19-year-olds across two months in 2023.<\/p>\n

Two of the victims were De Niro\u2019s grandson, Leandro Anthony De Niro-Rodriguez, and Akira Stein<\/a>, the daughter of Blondie guitarist and co-founder Chris Stein, the DEA said in a press release.<\/p>\n

Leandro De Niro, the son of De Niro\u2019s daughter Drena, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment<\/a> on July 2, 2023. He died from an overdose of \u201cfentanyl, bromazolam, alprazolam, 7-aminoclonazepam, ketamine and cocaine,\u201d the city medical examiner ruled.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone sold him fentanyl-laced pills<\/a> that they knew were laced, yet still sold them to him,\u201d Drena De Niro wrote on social media shortly after her son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

About a month later, the first suspect in the case was arrested and accused of doing exactly that. Sophia Marks, then 20, was charged<\/a> with three counts of narcotics distribution in connection with Leandro De Niro\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarks knew the pills could kill, and she continued selling them anyway<\/a>,\u201d then-Manhattan District Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.<\/p>\n

McIver, Epperson, Barreto and the two Nicolases stand accused of distributing thousands of fake pills laced with fentanyl<\/a>, alprazolam and other drugs, the feds said in charging documents.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The dealers used social media platforms to \u201cspecifically target teenagers and young adults,\u201d investigators said.<\/p>\n

\"RobertRobert De Niro speaks on stage at Director’s Brunch at 2025 Tribeca Festival at City Winery on June 8, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic\/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)<\/p>\n

Leandro De Niro had just moved to New York from Aspen, Colo.<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

The death of Akira Stein<\/a> on May 30, 2023, was not revealed until two months later, when her father wrote about it on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was wonderful and a bright place in the world. She had been struggling for a few years and addiction took her<\/a>,\u201d Chris Stein wrote. \u201cJust remember her and be kind to each other and you young people please avoid this trap.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Throughout the city, authorities tallied 3,056 overdose deaths in 2023<\/a>, a number that dropped to 2,192 such deaths in 2024.<\/p>\n

With Molly Crane-Newman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five more people were arrested Thursday in connection with the death of Robert De Niro\u2019s grandson from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[266,85,267,607,9,11,10,12,2632],"class_list":{"0":"post-24763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-national-news","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-snyde"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}