Drug dealer convicted of selling fentanyl-laced drugs that killed three people in one day
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The drug dealer who headed the cocaine delivery service that killed three people from fentanyl overdoses in one day was sentenced in a Manhattan court on Monday.
Billy Ortega, 36, was working as a dispatcher for on-demand drug service in March 2021.
Ortega ordered fellow drug dealer Kaylen Rainey to transport cocaine to various Manhattan addresses, according to federal prosecutors.
Rainey, who has pleaded not guilty, allegedly sold fentanyl-laced cocaine to attorney Julia Gharamani, Credit Suisse dealer Ross Mtangi and social worker Amanda Scher.
Each of the working professionals would die of an overdose on March 17.
Julia Ghahramani, 26, a first-year attorney, died in March 2021 after taking cocaine laced with fentanyl.
Ross Mtangi, a business executive at Credit Suisse Group AG, died on the same day in March after taking cocaine from the same dealer.
Amanda Scher, 36, a social worker, was the third victim that day after ordering cocaine from the service directed by Ortega
On Monday, Ortega was convicted by a federal jury in Manhattan on one count of narcotics conspiracy resulting in death, three counts of narcotics distribution resulting in death, and one count of using and carrying a firearm in furtherance of conspiracy. of narcotics.
He pleaded not guilty and has not yet been sentenced, but faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and could be behind bars for life, according to federal authorities.
Two of Ortega’s alleged runners, Rainey and William Drayton, are awaiting sentencing. Drayton has pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on the 17th of next month.
According to text messages between the dealer and the victims, Ortega had promoted a “new batch” of drugs that his team was selling that day. He specifically warned Scher that the batch was particularly potent after she questioned him about its quality.
US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after Ortega’s conviction: “Billy Ortega ran a drug delivery service that delivered fentanyl, killing three victims in a single day.
“Worse still, Ortega was fully aware that a customer had overdosed on the deadly fentanyl that Ortega mixed with his product, yet he continued to ship the drugs to his victims.
“As unanimously found by a jury, Ortega will now be held accountable for the tragic and untimely deaths of the victims,” he said.
It only takes a small dose of fentanyl to cause an overdose. Two milligrams, the equivalent of five grains of salt, is enough to cause death.
Because it is split into other popular drugs, many people who overdose (including Scher, Mtangi, and Ghahramani) don’t know they are taking fentanyl. Fentanyl has been partly blamed for the sharp decline in life expectancy in the United States over the past three years.
Drayton (left) pleaded guilty to acting as a drug dealer for the service operated by Ortega. He will be sentenced next month. Rainey (right) pleaded not guilty
Footage of Rainey allegedly delivering drugs from the government’s case against the three dealers
On March 17, Gharamani, who was back in his Avenue B apartment after a stay at his family’s home in Connecticut, sent a text message to a phone prosecutors say belonged to Ortega, asking: ‘Can you come in?’
The number then replied, “I’ll send them to you right now if you’d like.”
“That would be great, thanks, I really appreciate it,” she replied.
‘Don’t worry, we’re family’, was the reply.
After receiving the text, prosecutors say, Ortega sent Rainey to Ghahramani’s address with instructions to collect $200.
Just nine minutes later, Rainey could be seen on surveillance footage buzzing around her apartment.
Six hours later, he received two text messages to which he never responded.
They read, ‘Hey’ and ‘Hey, you there’.
Ghahramani also received seven calls on his phone overnight and into the next morning from the delivery service number.
When her mother woke up that morning, the Wall Street Journal reports, her mother knew something was wrong because she hadn’t heard from her daughter.
Then a friend went to check on her and found her dead and still holding her phone.
On the table, the complaint says, was a credit card and a rolled piece of paper with white residue on a plate.
Rainey was caught on surveillance footage in the elevator of Ghahramani’s apartment before he knocked on the door and allegedly delivered the drugs.
Dealers have been mixing fentanyl (pictured) with cocaine to make it more potent and addictive
On the same day, prosecutors say, Amanda Scher sent a text message to a number stored on her phone as “Jason Melissa.” Prosecutors say Ortega sometimes used Jason’s name.
She proceeded to order some drugs but asked if it was the same thing she got on Sunday ‘because that was no good lol she had to get rid of it’.
The dealer on the other end replied, ‘No new…batch.’
About two hours after Rainey was once again caught on surveillance camera handing over the drugs, she replied that she was “definitely better.”
He then counseled a private patient online from 8 to 9 pm before sitting down on the couch and turning on the TV.
Soon, text messages from the service number came in saying, ‘Hey, try not to do too much because it’s so strong.
‘Hey, boss, did you hear?’
‘LOL.’
Three FaceTime audio calls to his phone went unanswered that night, and then he got another message from ‘Jason Melissa’ saying, ‘Hey, can you call me back? I need to ask you something real quick.’
The next morning, her dog walker found her dead on the couch.
Prosecutors say text messages and calls to Ghahramani and Scher after the renditions showed a guilty conscience.
And, they say, just a day after the deliveries, Rainey sent Ortega screenshots of home drug test kits, and Ortega switched to a different phone.
They then continued to sell drugs until they were arrested, prosecutors allege.
Deaths caused by fentanyl in the US increased in the 2010s. At the beginning of the decade, 2,666 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses. This number shot up to 19,413 in 2016. The covid worsened the situation, with a record 72,484 deaths registered in 2021
As early as the first weeks of 2023, there have been dozens of overdose deaths in King County, Washington, according to local media. Pictured: A man in Seattle smokes fentanyl
The fentanyl crisis has helped drive the sharp decline in American life expectancy in recent years. Americans now live 76.4 years on average, up from 78.8 years in 2019. In the UK, which suffered from the covid pandemic just like the US, but is not suffering from a fentanyl crisis, hope life increased slightly from 81.3 years in 2019 to 81.52 in 2021.
The United States remains mired in the catastrophic fentanyl epidemic that is causing a staggering number of deaths and tearing at the fabric of American society.
The synthetic opioid that is washed out with virtually every street drug in the country killed a record 75,000 Americans in 2021, the equivalent of 1,500 lives lost every week.
Fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent than morphine, started out as a cheap alternative to heroin and was used only by the hardest drug addicts in the US, who mostly injected or smoked pipes.
But its low manufacturing costs and potency have made it the go-to agent for drug cartels and traffickers inside and outside the US looking to expand their supply. Now it’s found in everything from cocaine to molly to street benzodiazepines like Xanax.
Fentanyl has infected virtually every major city in America, turning the once-prosperous streets of New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia into wastelands. Scenes of zombified addicts injecting or smoking the drug in front of children are increasingly becoming a part of everyday life in major US metropolitan areas.