Authorities in Florida are still investigating how New York spring breakers, who remained dependent on intensive care ventilators on Sunday, got the fentanyl-laced cocaine that landed them in the hospital.
The tragedy occurred last week at a rental home in Wilton Manors where four cadets from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point suffered cardiac arrest after voluntarily ingesting the cocaine. Two other cadets came into contact with the drug after they tried to help their overdose friends, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue reported.
The six cadets were first hospitalized, and a seventh later felt sick also. On Friday, authorities arrested a suspect, Axel Giovany Casseus, 21, of Lauderhill. Casseus appeared before a judge on Saturday in Broward County court.
The report of his apprehension says investigators tracked the alleged drug dealer through a cell phone number that one of the overdose victims had been in contact with. Casseus happened to be the owner of the “cellphone used to communicate with the overdose victim, who is an undercover detective.”
In an undercover operation, investigators confirmed their suspicions after making a $1,000 drug deal with the suspect at a hotel parking lot in Fort Lauderdale, the Broward Sheriff’s Office reported. Casseus was busted in Hollywood.
He faces a cocaine trafficking charge and is being held on a $50,000 bond. In addition, Casseus remained at the Broward Main Jail on Sunday on a pending 2020 case on a charge of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling. He hasn’t been charged in connection with the recent drug overdoses in Wilton Manors.
Updates on the seven cadets’ health conditions were not available on Sunday because the victims’ families requested privacy, according to Local10.
