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Accused drug dealer sold 50 fentanyl-laced pills to undercover cop after Robert De Niro's grandson died in overdose, indictment says

Jul 15, 2023, 03:24 IST
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Robert De Niro.REUTERS/Eric Gaillard
  • The woman accused of selling pills to Robert De Niro's grandson also sold to an undercover cop, prosecutors say.
  • According to an indictment, Sophia Marks sold 50 fentanyl-laced oxycodone pills after Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez died.
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Less than two weeks after selling Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez the fentanyl-laced pill that allegedly killed him, 20-year-old Sophia Marks sold 50 suspected counterfeit fentanyl-laced oxycodone pills to an undercover cop, prosecutors alleged in an indictment filed Friday.

The charging document, which outlines three separate criminal counts related to drug distribution, accuses Marks of selling three counterfeit oxycodone pills with fentanyl and two tablets of Xanax to De Niro-Rodriguez, who died of an overdose after ingesting one of the oxycodone pills.

Soon afterward, Marks met an undercover police officer, the indictment says.

"[Marks] sold a total of 50 suspected counterfeit oxycodone pills to an undercover police officer," the document says. "On or about July 13, 2023, following her second sale to the [undercover officer], [Marks] was arrested and found to be in possession of approximately 156 more suspected counterfeit oxycodone pills and approximately $1,500 in cash."

Marks was arrested on Friday morning in the case linked to the death of De Niro-Rodriguez, the son of actor Robert De Niro.

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The 19-year-old De Niro-Rodriguez died in his lower Manhattan apartment on July 2, according to police.

Marks — nicknamed by anonymous law enforcement sources in tabloids as the "Percocet Princess" — appeared in federal court on Friday afternoon with a federal public defender and did not enter a plea, according to Inner City Press.

"The arrest was critical because, as we allege, Marks knew the pills could kill, and she continued selling them anyway. The investigation is ongoing," Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "Fentanyl is now the number one killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49. More than cancer, car accidents, or gun violence. It is a law enforcement crisis and a public health crisis. And we are doing everything we can to stop it."

According to the indictment, Marks texted De Niro-Rodriguez at 1:50 p.m. on July 2, "long after the drugs had been delivered" to him.

"u good?" she wrote, according the indictment.

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"The Victim never responded," the indictment says.

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