Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, the grandson of Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro, was sold fentanyl-laced pills before he died, his mother said Monday.
Actor and producer Drena De Niro shared more details about her son’s death in response to an Instagram user who asked her “how” and “why” the 19-year-old died. Drena De Niro confirmed Leandro’s death Sunday. No cause of death was given.
“Someone sold him fentanyl laced pills that they knew were laced yet still sold them to him,” Drena De Niro commented Monday under one of her recent Instagram posts, “so for all these people still f— around selling and buying this s— , my son is gone forever.”
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has caused a recent nationwide spike in deadly drug overdoses. It poses more danger to people without a high tolerance for opioids, such as teenagers, who “are at a much higher risk of overdose death because of the spread of counterfeit pills that look like Percocet and OxyContin or Xanax, but they’re actually illicit fentanyl,” according to Joseph Friedman, a UCLA addiction researcher.
In a separate Instagram post Monday, Drena De Niro remembered her late son as a person who exuded “kindness,” “acceptance” and “love.”
Drena De Niro is one of Robert De Niro’s seven children. Leandro was an actor who appeared in 2018’s “A Star Is Born,” 2018’s “Cabaret Maxime” and 2005’s “The Collection,” according to IMDb.
“None of this is right or fair and my heart hurts in a way I never knew possible while still breathing and barely functioning,” Drena De Niro said Monday.
“Leo my darling I love you today like the first day I held you in my arms. The same man that picked us up from the hospital when you were born drove us to the funeral home where I touched and held you for the last time. … You didn’t deserve to die like this but I can only believe that God needed a strong powerful angel in their army.”
In a statement shared Monday with The Times, Robert De Niro said, “I’m deeply distressed by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo. We’re greatly appreciative of the condolences from everyone. We ask that we please be given privacy to grieve our loss of Leo.”
Times staff writers Alexandra Del Rosario and Emily Alpert Reyes contributed to this report.
