NY Drug Dealer Convicted of Killing Three

A New York City drug dealer who distributed fentanyl-laced cocaine out of his mother’s Manhattan apartment has been convicted of the 2021 poisoning deaths of three people.  Aaron Katersky of CBS News reports that Billy Ortega faces 25 years-to -life in federal prison for selling the laced cocaine to stockbroker Ross Mitangi, lawyer Amanda Scher and social worker Julia Ghahramari on the same day in March of 2021.  All three died of fentanyl poisoning.  Federal prosecutors proved that Ortega knew that the drugs he was selling were causing overdoses.  He even gave some of the cocaine to another dealer and suggested he test it’s potency telling him, “give it some girls and you let me know…”  In 2021 18,000 American fatally overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine.  Fortunately federal law provides a stiff mandatory minimum sentence for this type of crime.