Surveillance Video Four drug dealers arrested | sold fentanyl-laced heroin that killed actor Michael K. Williams
Nearly five months after Michael K. Williams was found dead in his Brooklyn home, four men have been arrested and charged with drug conspiracy in connection with the death of “The Wire” star
Olivia Miller 
"Today, along with our law enforcement partners at the NYPD, we are announcing the arrest of members of a drug gang, including Irvin Cartagena, the man we allege sold the lethal dose of drugs to Michael Kenneth Williams," said Damian Williams. the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York this morning sold fentanyl-laced heroin to Williams last September.
In nearly identical complaints (read here and here) , unsealed today, the DOJ alleged that Hector Robles, Luis Cruz, Carlos Macci and Irvin "Green Eyes" Cartagena sold drugs in Williamsburg over a period from "August 2020 to approximately January 2022" as part of a larger "drug trafficking organization," according to the filings. With vivid surveillance camera photos and informal information, the detailed complaints lay out how Williams, an addict, got the drugs that killed him from the quartet and how he "died as a result of consuming this heroin laced with fentanyl."
"Despite knowing that Williams died after purchasing the DTO product, the DTO continued to sell fentanyl-laced heroin in broad daylight in the midst of residential homes," both complaints state in damning fashion.
The charges against the four include a mandatory minimum sentence of five years behind bars and a maximum sentence of 40 years. Generally, prosecutors ask for the maximum in such cases, perhaps even more in a high-profile case like this. It should also be noted that Cartagena had been picked up at least once in 2021 for selling drugs at the exact same spot on South 3rd Street in the heavily gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood where he sold the deadly drugs to Williams that Labor Day weekend.
The 54-year-old, five-time Emmy-nominated actor, acclaimed for his work in The Wire , Boardwalk Empire , 12 Years a Slave and most recently Lovecraft Country, died last Sept. 6 of "acute intoxication from the combined effects of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, heroin and cocaine," the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner ruled Sept. 24, 2021.
"I commend our NYPD investigators, working closely with their federal partners in the United States Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, for their work to clean up this long-contested block in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and for their continued commitment to Pursue every lead this case has produced, from New York City to Puerto Rico and back," NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said Wednesday.
Now in court, the case is being handled by the Southern District Office Narcotics Division, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Micah Fergenson and David Robles leading the prosecution.
