Three New Yorkers - a Credit Suisse trader, a first-year lawyer and a social worker - died from fentanyl overdoses on the same day after ordering cocaine from the same delivery service run by stay-at-home dad who has now pleaded not guilty to causing their deaths
- Three New York City professionals died on the same day in March 2021, after ordering cocaine from the same delivery service
- Victims are Ross Mtangi, 40, a trading executive at Credit Suisse Group AG, Julia Ghahramani, 26, a first-year lawyer and Amanda Scher, 36, a social worker
- Prosecutors say they ordered cocaine from Billy Ortega, whom they accuse of arranging New York City drug deals from his home
- The drugs were then allegedly delivered to the victims by Kaylen Rainey, a courier for Ortega who lives in an apartment registered to Ortega's family
- The victims apparently did not realize the cocaine was laced with fentanyl
- Both Ortega and Rainey have since pleaded not guilty to causing the three deaths and distributing drugs, and are awaiting trial
Three New York City professionals died on the same day in March 2021, after ordering cocaine from the same delivery service.
A report from the Wall Street Journal details how Ross Mtangi, 40, a trading executive at Credit Suisse Group AG; Julia Ghahramani, 26, a first-year lawyer; and Amanda Scher, 36, a social worker, all died on March 18, 2021 after getting cocaine laced with fentanyl delivered.
It comes just days after a passenger at Los Angeles International Airport was caught trying to smuggle 12,000 fentanyl pills through the airport in Whoppers, SweeTARTS and Skittles wrappers.
Prosecutors say the three professionals ordered the drugs from Billy Ortega, whom they accuse of arranging New York City drug deals from his home. His attorneys, though, have claimed he is just a stay-at-home father from New Jersey.
The drugs were then allegedly delivered to the victims by Kaylen Rainey, a courier for Ortega who lives in an apartment registered to Ortega's family.
But the victims apparently did not realize that the cocaine, which remains popular amongst New York City elites, was laced with fentanyl — a powerful opioid that dealers cut into cocaine to make it more potent and addictive.
Just a small amount of fentanyl could kill an inexperienced user.
Both Ortega and Rainey have since pleaded not guilty to causing the three deaths and distributing drugs, and are awaiting trial.
They had previously been arrested for committing a robbery together in 2016, according to the criminal complaint.
Julia Ghahramani, 26, a first-year lawyer, and Amanda Scher, 36, a social worker, died on March 18, 2021 after ordering cocaine from a delivery service
Ross Mtangi, a trading executive at Credit Suisse Group AG, also died that day after taking the cocaine prosecutors say was laced with fentanyl
All three of the victims were working professionals at the time of their deaths.
Prosecutors say Kaylen Rainey (pictured) delivered the drugs to the victims, working for Billy Ortega. He has pleaded not guilty to causing the three deaths and distributing drugs, and is awaiting trial
Rainey was caught on surveillance footage in the elevator of Ghahramani's apartment before he rang on the door and allegedly delivered the drugs
Dealers have been cutting fentanyl (pictured) into cocaine to make it more potent and addictive
Cocaine has been a popular drug amongst New York working professionals since the 1980s when it became associated with jet setters and elite professionals.
Usage estimates in the city now remain higher than the 2 percent national rate of Americans taking the drug annually for the past two decades, the Journal reports.
The addition of fentanyl over the past decade, meanwhile, has tripled the yearly number of New Yorkers dying.
Of 980 cocaine deaths in 2020, 81 percent involved fentanyl, according to the most recent New York City health department data.
And drug use has only increased during the pandemic, with deaths hitting an annual high of 107,521 in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control, up 51 percent since 2019.
Nearly three-quarters of those deaths have involved fentanyl.
New York City health authorities are now warning club goers of the risks of unknowingly taking fentanyl, with Health Department officials putting up posters and sending drink coasters to clubs warning cocaine users to start with a small dose and have naloxone — an opioid reversal drug — present.
They have also handed out fentanyl testing strips that can be used to test cocaine and other drugs for fentanyl.
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