Axel Giovany Casseus of Lauderhill is under arrest for selling cocaine containing fentanyl to spring breakers at Wilton Manors, including four cadets from the United States Military Academy of New York at West Point.
Casseus, 21, was charged with one count of trafficking cocaine under 200 grams. He is being held at Broward Main Jail on $50,000 bond for the cocaine charge. He also has no bond for a burglary charge that court records show dates back to January 2020.
According to the arrest report, detectives “were able to determine the cell phone number of the alleged dealer who supplied the victims with the narcotics” through cell phone records of an overdose victim and a corroborating undercover detective.
Alex Giovany Casseus
The Wilton Manors Police Department said six men and one woman overdosed on cocaine containing fentanyl last Thursday and were taken to Broward Health Medical Center and Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale. At least two patients are reportedly still in critical condition and on ventilators. The others were in stable or good condition and at least one has been discharged from hospital. According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, updates on the spring breakers’ health conditions were unavailable Sunday after their families requested confidentiality.
Florida officials only identified the patients as students from New York State. However, a US Military Academy spokeswoman said on Saturday that five West Point cadets were involved and four of them were taken to hospital.
A West Point official told The Associated Press on Friday that two of the cadets involved were football players and one was hospitalized. TV news crews filmed black and white spring breakers being taken from the Wilton Manors Airbnb suburb on stretchers.
“This incident serves as a stark reminder to all, especially those visiting for
Spring Break, deadly effects of Fentanyl,” Wilton Manors police said in a statement.
According to a WSVN report, neighbors said they heard loud music coming from the house, but the gathering was otherwise peaceful.
“It was guys and girls there. They seemed to be having a great time barbecuing and they were in the pool,” said Dana Fumosa, who lives next door to the Airbnb.
The Wilton Manors AirBnB that West Point cadets rented.
Neighbors said the house seemed full of people when, at one point, some students started inhaling the drug and immediately overdosed.
Worried friends performed mouth-to-mouth CPR, exposing themselves to the dangerous cocktail. Ambulances started arriving around 5 p.m.
According to Centers for Disaster Control and Prevention. It’s often added to other drugs like heroin and cocaine by dealers “because of its extreme potency, which makes the drugs cheaper, more potent, more addictive and more dangerous,” the CDC said.
Fentanyl accounts for the vast majority of accidental overdose deaths in Broward County. A 2017 Florida law allows drug traffickers to face murder charges if a sale of fentanyl results in a fatal overdose.
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