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A 40-year-old Puerto Rican man has been sentenced to ten years in prison for selling a lethal quantity of heroin laced with fentanyl and a fentanyl analogue to actor Michael K. Williams, according to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Besides his prison term, authorities also said Irvin Cartagena was sentenced to five years of supervised release. “Michael K. Williams tragically lost his life after using the drugs sold to him by Cartagena. Although their product had already claimed one life, Cartagena and his co-conspirators continued to sell potentially lethal fentanyl-laced heroin,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a statement.
“This office will tenaciously continue our enforcement efforts against unscrupulous drug dealers who distribute poison and exacerbate the scourge of the fentanyl epidemic,” Williams added.
Cartagena, known as “Green Eyes,” is one of three individuals suspected of being members of a drug trafficking ring that supplied the fatal substance to Williams. After entering a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, heroin, and other substances, he was convicted.
Authorities accused Cartagena of executing “the hand-to-hand transaction” of the drug that caused Williams’ accidental overdose. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that though the men got to know about Williams’ passing after purchasing the deadly drug, they “continued to sell fentanyl-laced heroin, in broad daylight, amidst residential apartment buildings, in Brooklyn and Manhattan.”
In the aftermath of Willams’ killing, the guilty man fled to Puerto Rico, according to the statement. He was eventually apprehended in February of last year.
Williams, as previously reported by NewsofAfrica, was discovered dead in his New York City apartment in September 2021. The actor was well known for his role as Omar Little in the groundbreaking HBO series “The Wire.”
