2023-08-19 10:45:49
A “humble and hard-working” man who sold deadly poison. Irvin Cartagena, 40, was sentenced in a New York court on Friday to 10 years in prison for supplying actor Michael K. Williams with fentanyl-containing heroin that caused his death in September 2021.
Williams played drug dealer thief Omar Little on HBO’s “The Wire,” which aired from 2002 to 2008. Former President Barack Obama once said his performance made “The Wire” his favorite show. It recounted the fight of a police anti-narcotics squad against gangs in the city of Baltimore. Besides his work in this critically acclaimed series, the comedian has also starred in films and other television series.
Like a mirror, the 54-year-old actor was found dead on September 6, 2021 in his Brooklyn apartment. He died hours after buying heroin in Cartagena, on a sidewalk in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The transaction was filmed by a surveillance camera. Known for drug crimes, burglaries, robberies and prison breaks, Cartagena had fled to Puerto Rico, where he is from. He was arrested there in February 2022.
Williams didn’t know his heroin was cut with fentanyl
Last April, the drug dealer pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs. He faced between five and forty years in prison, like three acolytes of the same deal point. Fentanyl, a highly addictive opioid in principle used to treat pain, is considered by the White House to be “the deadliest drug to have ever threatened the United States”. Rapper Coolio and Robert De Niro’s grandson recently had a fatal overdose, like many other celebrities.
VIDEO. Rapper Coolio died of a fentanyl overdose
“I’m really sorry for my actions,” he said in Spanish before the sentence was announced. “When we sold drugs, we never intended for anyone to die,” said Irvin Cartagena.
Prosecutors blamed Cartagena and its co-defendants who knew their merchandise had already killed one of their clients. No matter, they continued to sell it, even after the death of the actor who did not know that his heroin was cut with fentanyl. Undercover police have purchased drugs at the foot of the Williamsburg building more than a dozen times.
His lawyer, Sean Maher, defended that his client, a drug addict since the age of 13, obtained enough to ensure his own heroin consumption by dealing. “In a tragic moment, it was Mr. Cartagena who handed the small packet of drugs to Mr. Williams. It could have been any of the other men who were there or nearby selling the same drug,” he said, insisting the man was “at the bottom of the scale. freedom from the drug trade”.
Already another convicted dealer
Reading the filing, the district judge who sentenced him, Ronnie Abrams, reported that friends and acquaintances in Cartagena described him as “helpful, humble and hard-working” when he was not under the supervision himself. drug empire. She acknowledged that any of the four vendors could have supplied the drug to the actor. “I hope that treatment will allow you to move forward on a more productive and law-abiding path,” the magistrate told him.
One of Irvin Cartagena’s co-defendants, Carlos Macci, was sentenced last month to 30 months in prison. In court, David Simon, creator of “The Wire,” had written a letter asking for some leniency for Macci, saying Williams viewed his drug addiction as his sole responsibility. “I know that Michael would look at the broken and sorry life of Mr. Macci and would know two things for sure: one, it is Michael who bears full responsibility for what happened. And second, no benefit can come from the incarceration of a 71-year-old, largely illiterate soul who herself has struggled with a lifetime of addiction. »
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