Robert De Niro: Woman arrested after actor’s grandson dies

NEW YORK –

A 20-year-old woman has been arrested on federal narcotics charges and is accused of selling the drugs that led to the death of actor Robert De Niro’s 19-year-old grandson, a law enforcement official said Friday.

The woman, Sofia Haley Marks, appeared in Manhattan federal court on Friday and agreed to remain behind bars until she files for bail at a later date. Prosecutors said they would resist a request for her release.

Marks was arrested Thursday night on three counts of narcotics distribution as a result of selling drugs to Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, the law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to discuss the details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Rodriguez was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on July 2. His mother, Drena De Niro, announced the death on Instagram. Amy Gallicchio, an assistant federal defense attorney who represented Marks on Friday, said Marks planned to hire a lawyer. Gallicchio declined to comment outside of court.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that at least one of the fake oxycodone pills sold by Marks “was ingested by a teenager who subsequently died of a suspected overdose.” Rodriguez was not named in court documents.

Williams said the arrest was “critical because, as we argue, Marks knew the pills could kill, and she kept selling them anyway.”

The prosecution said fentanyl is now the leading killer of Americans ages 18 to 49. In 2022, an estimated 109,680 people died from drug overdoses, including about 75,000 from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

“More than cancer, car accidents or gun violence. It’s a law enforcement crisis and a public health crisis. And we’re doing everything we can to stop it,” he said.

Rodriguez’s cause of death is still under investigation, a spokesman for the municipal medical investigation agency said.

When Drena De Niro announced her son’s death, she responded to a question on her post by writing that her son died after “someone sold him fentanyl pills.”

Rodriguez was the oldest child of Drena De Niro and artist Carlos Mare.

Like his famous grandfather, Rodriguez was an actor who had appeared in projects alongside his mother, including Bradley Cooper’s 2018 remake of ‘A Star is Born’.

Robert De Niro said after Rodriguez’s death that he was “deeply saddened by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo”. A representative of his did not immediately respond to a message asking for comment about the arrest.

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Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed to his report.