A woman was arrested Thursday night in New York City as part of a drug trafficking investigation related to the death of Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, law enforcement officials told multiple news outlets.
Sofia Haley Marks, 20, has been charged with drug distribution and is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Manhattan on Friday. according to ABC News.
De Niro Rodriguez was found dead in a lower Manhattan apartment on July 2 at the age of 19. He died after taking “fentanyl-laced pills,” according to his mother, actress Drena De Niro, daughter of two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro.
Marks was arrested during a covert undercover operation by the New York City Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the US Department of Homeland Security. reported the New York Post. The joint task force’s investigation is reportedly still ongoing.
According to ABC News, Marks allegedly sold drugs to De Niro Rodriguez.
Investigators have reportedly been looking into De Niro Rodriguez’s death for a possible drug overdose. However, an official cause of death was not announced.
“Someone sold him fentanyl-laced pills that they knew had fentanyl-laced in them and sold them to him anyway. With all these people still selling and buying this crap my son is gone forever,” Drena De Niro wrote in the comments to an Instagram post last week.
Robert De Niro said in a July 3 statement that he was “deeply saddened by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo” and asked for privacy to mourn.
De Niro Rodriguez’s father, artist Carlos Mare, said, “Words are not enough to express the joy he brought us or the loss we now bear with our families and friends.”
Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, is the most common drug implicated in overdose deaths in New York City. according to NYC Health.