A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection to a mass fentanyl overdose incident involving five cadets from West Point, a prestigious military academy in New York.
Axel Giovany Casseus was arrested on cocaine trafficking charges Friday, a day after the cadets and two other people reportedly overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine while spending spring break in Florida, according to an arrest report from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office obtained by NBC News on Saturday.
Casseus supposedly supplied the narcotics that caused the mass overdose on Thursday afternoon while the spring breakers were staying on a rental home in the city of Wilton Manors, according to the arrest report.
Four of the West Point cadets, all men, were found in cardiac arrest in the rental home's front yard. Two were revived using Narcan, an emergency overdose treatment, and rushed to a local hospital.
Two other cadets did not respond to the emergency treatment and were hospitalized in critical condition. They remain hospitalized as of Saturday afternoon, according to the West Point Public Affairs Office.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, most recent cases of fentanyl-related overdose are linked to illicitly manufactured fentanyl.
Casseus was arrested after he sold 43 grams of cocaine for $1,000 to an undercover detective working with Broward County's drug task force on Friday afternoon, according to the report. Detectives said the transaction was audio and video recorded.
Arrest records show Casseus is at the Main Jail in Broward County on a $50,000 bond. Court records do not yet list an attorney for Casseus as of Saturday afternoon.