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Four Brooklyn drug dealers have been arrested and charged in connection to the death of actor Michael K. Williams, who overdosed on heroin laced with fentanyl in September 2021.
According to a news release from the Department of Justice, the four men charged are 39-year-old Irvin Cartagena, 57-year-old Hector Robles, 56-year-old Luis Cruz and 70-year-old Carlos Macci. Cartagena was charged directly with his death due to being seen on video selling him the deadly drugs in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. All four men were charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl analogue, fentany and heroin after being arrested on Feb. 1, 2022. Cartagena was arrested in Puerto Rico and appeared in court on Feb. 3. The other three men had their first court appearance in Manhattan federal court.
Cartagena is facing 20 years to life while Macci, Cruz and Robles are facing five to 40 years.
In a surveillance video of the drug sale, Williams is chatting with the men before Cartagena is seen retrieving a bag of drugs from behind a row of trash cans that he handed to Williams.
The men who were arrested were already under surveillance even before the Lovecraft Country actor’s death. According to the Associated Press, a paid informant had been working with the New York Police Department and buying heroin on the same Brooklyn block where Williams bought his drugs. An undercover officer had also purchased drugs there days before Williams’ death. When Williams was found, there was a drug vial in his apartment with an AAA Insurance label on it, which was the same label on the drugs the undercover officer bought. The men reportedly continued selling drugs after they found out about Williams’ death and are heard on surveillance tape discussing his death.
Williams was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment on Sept. 6, 2021. His death was ruled accidental by a New York medical examiner and was caused by an “acute intoxication by the combined effects of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, heroin and cocaine.”
