Six gang members were arrested on suspicion of fatally drugging the drinks of two victims in Manhattan bars then steal them in incidents a few weeks apart the spring of last year.
After several months of investigation, the New York medical examiner concluded in early March that Julio Ramírez (25) and John Umberger (33) were victims of homicides in April and May 2022 during an apparent pattern of poisoned drinks in bars and then robbed patrons.
No one had been arrested for these cases, until yesterday followingnoon arrest warrants were issued for six gang members for robbery and conspiracy to drug at least a dozen victims. Three of them were also accused of the murder of Ramírez and Umberger, reported New York Post. Their names were not revealed.
Umberger -a tourist who arrived from Washington DC- and Ramírez -a Brooklyn resident of Salvadoran origin- died of “acute intoxication” by a mixture of fentanyl, cocaine, ethanol and other drugs, announced the city’s medical examiner on March 3.
A spokesman for the Forensic Medicine said that they were victims of homicides caused by “drug-facilitated robberies”. They died shortly following overdosing at the bars they visited in Midtown West. Unidentified thieves withdrew money from the accounts of both victims, in addition to stealing their cell phones, he recalled. Daily News.
After having visited several places in Hell’s KitchenSurveillance video from the early morning of April 21, 2022 captured Ramirez speaking with three men outside the “Ritz Bar Lounge” on West 46th St, where he had taken a selfie photo at 2:26 a.m. in apparent good health. He was later seen walking freely to a taxi with them.
The young social worker was later found unconscious in the back seat of that taxi at the Lower East Side. Despite the efforts of the driver, an NYPD agent, and paramedics to save his life, Ramírez was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 4:49 a.m.
Umberger, a visiting New York political consultant, was found dead on June 1 in an apartment in the Upper East Side where he was staying, following visiting nights before “Q”, a club located at 795 8th Ave, also in Hell’s Kitchen.
Coincidentally, yesterday it was also announced that fashion designer Kathryn Marie Gallagher (35) had died the same way – from “drug-facilitated robbery”– in his apartment in Lower Manhattan (NYC) in July of last year. The medical examiner’s office said Gallagher suffered a acute poisoning due to the combined effects of fentanyl, ethanol and p-fluorofentanyl.
The latter is a designer drug linked to overdose deaths in eight states between late 2020 and June 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The same pattern has been repeated in other areas of the city. for social consumption of fentanyl and other drugs in New York, without the victims apparently knowing it. In November NYPD was investigating at least seven recent deaths in lower manhattan which apparently had as a common denominator that the victims were drugged by thieves in the vicinity of bars.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be used to mix drugs like cocaine or heroin to produce a stronger high.
In January the local authorities announced that during 2022 in NYC there was a record seizure of fentanyl pills equivalent to 72 million fatal doses. “Fentanyl saturates the supply of illegal drugs in New York City and is a factor in approximately the 80% of deaths due to overdose. Even the casual or occasional use of illegal drugs might be fatal, and with an explosion of counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, a single tablet purchased online or on social media might be deadly,” said special prosecutor for narcotics Bridget G. Brennan, in a statement.
“Fentanyl is the single most significant threat to our public health and public safety,” DEA Special Agent Frank Tarentino said then. “It’s poison…. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Every day we have more seizures. In New York City there is a drug overdose every three hours. At the national level it is every five minutes, 295 a day”.
In 2022, the municipal authorities of New York launched a controversial campaign on public transport with “advice” to consume fentanyl “safely”, which some described as counterproductive and irresponsible.
All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
