The individual believed to be connected with the suspected drug overdose death of actor Robert De Niro’s 19-year-old grandson has been arrested, Your Content has learned.
Known as the “Percocet Princess,” 21-year-old Sofia Haley Marks was apprehended in relation to the tragic incident, as reported by the New York Post.
As Your Content readers know, enforcement sources informed the Post that Marks allegedly sold Leandro De Niro Rodriguez the drugs that preceded his untimely death. Rodriguez was found lifeless in his Financial District apartment on July 2.
Marks’ arrest occurred around 6 p.m., resulting from a covert sting operation executed by the NYPD, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Homeland Security. As of late Thursday night, investigators were still searching her home. Marks is facing federal charges related to the distribution of narcotics.
Leandro’s death has been scrutinized from the beginning as a possible overdose, given that a white powdery substance and drug paraphernalia were discovered near his body. His mother, Drena De Niro, is Robert De Niro’s eldest daughter with his ex-wife Diahnne Abbott. Drena suspects her son’s death resulted from consuming pills laced with fentanyl.
She claimed the person who sold the tainted drugs to her son did so with full knowledge of their lethal nature. “Someone sold him fentanyl-laced pills that they knew were laced yet still sold them to him,” Drena wrote on Instagram, expressing her grief over the loss of her son.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has yet to officially confirm the cause of death. However, detectives from the NYPD Narcotics Borough Manhattan South have been enlisted to investigate the case.
NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig last month pointed out the pervasiveness of fentanyl in the local drug scene, saying it is now “laced in probably 98% of the drugs” in New York City.
Leandro was given a star-studded farewell at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on the Upper East Side of New York City, where funerals of other renowned entertainers have also been held. Robert De Niro expressed his deep distress over the loss of his “beloved grandson.”