Police arrested a man on March 11 in connection with five West Point cadets who overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine during spring break in Florida.
According to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, 21-year-old Axel Giovany Casseus, of Lauderhill, Florida, was charged with drug trafficking after selling cocaine to an undercover police officer.
Detectives then followed Casseus to Hollywood, Florida, where he was arrested.
The report states that the phone Casseus used to communicate with the undercover detective was the same phone used to communicate with the overdose victims.
While the cocaine purchased by the undercover officers didn’t contain fentanyl, the cocaine that led to the overdoses of the cadets did.
Casseus was charged with one felony count of trafficking less than 200 grams of cocaine, as well as for a burglary dating back to January 2020. He was held at the Broward County Main Jail on a $50,000 bond for the cocaine charge.
West Point officials issued a statement on March 11 acknowledging that the events had taken place at a rental house and said they were investigating.
“The U.S. Military Academy is aware of the situation involving West Point cadets, which occurred Thursday night [March 10] in Wilton Manors,” a statement from the academy’s public affairs office reads. “The incident is currently under investigation and no other details are available at this time.”
“Four of the six students were using the laced drug and at least two of them immediately went into cardiac arrest,” Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan said in a written statement. “We are being told that four of those people had taken a substance that was believed to be cocaine laced with fentanyl when they went down into cardiac arrest.”
The incident came two days after Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody released a statement warning students that are attending spring break against “deadly fentanyl from Mexico” that has been “flooding the illicit drug market.”
