Four people have been taken into custody on drug charges in connection with the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Police investigating Hoffman’s death executed search warrants at several New York City apartments, two people with knowledge of the investigation told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Police were tipped off by a confidential source, who told police that the suspects may have supplied Hoffman drugs.
The AP reports that police found undisclosed quantities of heroin and marijuana Tuesday night in three apartments in a lower Manhattan building. Of the four suspects, three of them live in the building. They all face charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance. Two are also facing charges of criminal use of drug paraphernalia.
Hoffman’s death last weekend in his Greenwich Village apartment led to a hunt for his drug dealers. He was found with a syringe in his arm and empty and unused bags of heroin nearby. Some of the bags were stamped with symbols that police hoped to use in tracking the dealers.
Such a swift and intensive effort by the NYPD to find the source of the drugs in an apparent accidental overdose is unusual.Under New York state law, drug dealers cannot be held liable for a customer’s death.
There was no timetable for Hoffman’s autopsy to be finished, said medical examiner office spokeswoman Julie Bolcer, who declined to discuss the pending tests. Toxicology and tissue tests are typically done in such cases.
Investigators have also found that the day before he died, Hoffman made six ATM transactions for $1,200 near a D’Agostino supermarket.Buprenorphine, a drug used to treat heroin addiction, was also found at Hoffman’s apartment.
The Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home will hold the funeral on Friday. They have orchestrated the funerals for celebrities including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and James Cagney. It will be family and friends only.
Hoffman had been frank about struggling with substance abuse. He told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in 2006 that had he used “anything I could get my hands on” before getting clean at age 22. But in interviews last year, he said he had relapsed, had developed a heroin problem, and had gone to rehab for a time.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
