Drug Dealer Gets 30 Years For 3 New Yorkers’ Same-Day Fentanyl Deaths.
The leader of a drug delivery service in New York that was responsible for the death of three people from fentanyl poisoning on the same day was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Billy Ortega, 37, ran a service that in March 2021 delivered fentanyl-laced cocaine to three customers, US Attorney Damian Williams of the southern district of New York said in a statement.
The victims -- a lawyer, a stock trader and a social worker -- died on the same day.
"Worse yet, Ortega was fully aware that a customer had previously overdosed from the deadly fentanyl Ortega laced into his product yet continued sending the drugs to his victims," Williams said.
"Ortega's callous and remarkably evil conduct rightly deserved a significant sentence."
Ortega ran his drug operation from 2015 to 2022, employing relatives and friends. He was convicted in a trial in January this year, and a federal judge sentenced him on Wednesday, according to Williams.
"This sentence sends a message to the fentanyl traffickers causing the fentanyl epidemic in our communities that they will bear the most serious consequences," Williams' statement said.
Ortega’s defense team has indicated he plans to appeal the decision, US media reported.
The United States is facing an epidemic of deaths caused by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin and much easier and cheaper to produce.
It has largely replaced heroin and prescription opioids like oxycodone as a cause of overdoses. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 110,000 Americans died from overdoses last year.
China is a major producer of precursor chemicals, which are then shipped to Mexico and Central America where cartels produce fentanyl for smuggling into the United States.
The leader of a drug delivery service in New York that was responsible for the death of three people from fentanyl poisoning on the same day was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Billy Ortega, 37, ran a service that in March 2021 delivered fentanyl-laced cocaine to three customers, US Attorney Damian Williams of the southern district of New York said in a statement.
The victims -- a lawyer, a stock trader and a social worker -- died on the same day.
"Worse yet, Ortega was fully aware that a customer had previously overdosed from the deadly fentanyl Ortega laced into his product yet continued sending the drugs to his victims," Williams said.
"Ortega's callous and remarkably evil conduct rightly deserved a significant sentence."
Ortega ran his drug operation from 2015 to 2022, employing relatives and friends. He was convicted in a trial in January this year, and a federal judge sentenced him on Wednesday, according to Williams.
"This sentence sends a message to the fentanyl traffickers causing the fentanyl epidemic in our communities that they will bear the most serious consequences," Williams' statement said.
Ortega’s defense team has indicated he plans to appeal the decision, US media reported.
The United States is facing an epidemic of deaths caused by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin and much easier and cheaper to produce.
It has largely replaced heroin and prescription opioids like oxycodone as a cause of overdoses. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 110,000 Americans died from overdoses last year.
China is a major producer of precursor chemicals, which are then shipped to Mexico and Central America where cartels produce fentanyl for smuggling into the United States.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Drug dealer gets 30 years for three New Yorkers same-day fentanyl deaths.
00:05 Billy Ortega, the man responsible for the fentanyl overdose deaths of three young professionals
00:10 in New York City, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Wednesday.
00:15 The sentencing came two and a half years after the March 2021 incident where a trio of New
00:20 Yorkers texted a service for cocaine but was instead hand-delivered a fatal dose of fentanyl.
00:26 The trio didn't know each other personally, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2022,
00:31 but they all had Ortega as their supplier.
00:35 The journal identified those killed as Julia Garamani, a 26-year-old lawyer; Ross Emtangy,
00:41 a 40-year-old trading executive; and Amanda Scher, a 38-year-old social worker.
00:47 Screenshots showed Scher had texted the delivery service number to request a new batch of coke
00:52 from last time, complaining the last delivery was no good.
00:56 The journal reported that, hours later, she was dead from an overdose, her phone blowing
01:01 up with a warning from Ortega that the batch was "really strong."
01:05 Emtangy and Garamani reportedly died in a similar manner.