Los Angeles, Jul 15 (IANS): Hollywood icon Robert De Niro's grandson, Leandro De Niro Rodriguez was warned by his drug dealer about the oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl which are believed to have killed him.
Leandro, 19, was found dead at his apartment in New York City on July 2, reports TMZ.
Sofia Haley Marks, 20, has been accused of selling him drugs containing fentanyl - a powerful opioid which is said to be up to 50 times stronger than heroin.
According to police documents, obtained by TMZ, texts were found on Leandro's phone from Marks, where she asked him: "Do you really need them? I don't wanna kill you. I just don't like serving you them because they are not scripts."
She is reported to have agreed to sell him three oxycodone pills and two Xanax tablets for $105 before allegedly texting him to say: "don't go overboard with these," as per femalefirst.co.uk.
The drugs were delivered by car to Leandro around 9pm on July 1.
According to police, Marks texted him at 1.50 am to ask "u good?"
However, Leandro never responded and was found dead on July 2.
Investigators found "one bag of cocaine, one straw with residue, two blue pills with 'M' and '30' (the oxycodone) and seven rectangular tablets - believed to be Xanax" on a table beside Leandro after his death.
Leandro's mother Drena De Niro, who is Robert De Niro’s adopted daughter from his marriage to ex-wife Diahnne Abbott, has claimed her son died after taking pills laced with fentanyl.
In a post on Instagram, she alleged: "Someone sold him fentanyl-laced pills that they knew were laced yet still sold them to him.
"So for all these people still f****** around selling and buying this s***, my son is gone forever."