Doctor Who Sold Upper West Sider Fatal Opioid Dose Could Face Life In Prison: DOJ

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A doctor is facing the possibility of life in prison after being indicted in federal court for allegedly selling an Upper West Side man the dose of fentanyl that eventually killed him, according to federal prosecutors.

Avinoam Luzon, 32, was charged with narcotics distribution resulting in the death of another, which carries a minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office Southern District of New York.

On October 22 Luzon allegedly sold fentanyl to Gabriel Tramiel, a 32-year-old Upper West Side resident, prosecutors said. The next morning Tramiel's wife discovered his dead body and a nasal spray bottle containing fentanyl in their apartment, according to a criminal complaint. The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that Tramiel's cause of death was acute fentayl intoxication, according to prosecutors.

Luzon is a master's candidate at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in Washington Heights, according to prosecutors and a LinkedIn profile.

"As a medical doctor and graduate student in public health, Avinoam Luzon was supposed to help the sick get healthy, but instead he allegedly helped fuel the nation’s most serious health crisis, the opioid abuse epidemic," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

The damning piece of evidence in the case against Luzon appears to be text messages sent between the doctor and Tramiel the night of October 22. A transcript of the messages included in a criminal complaint shows the two organize a drug deal in a CVS pharmacy on West 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

Tramiel told Luzon that he would pay him $300 by Paypal and $900 in cash to meet him at the pharmacy for the drug deal, according to the text messages. Tramiel was later recorded on a security camera sniffing the contents of a nasal spray bottle in the elevator of his apartment building, according to a criminal complaint.

“We will continue to investigate every single overdose across this city and to make arrests like this. Our goal: to protect life and deter those who peddle these deadly opioids," NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said in a statement.

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