Heroin Dealer Implicated In Overdose Death Sentenced To 8+ Years In Prison

YORKTOWN, NY — A Tarrytown man will spend more than eight years in prison for distributing heroin connected to an overdose death. Joon H. Kim, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Anthony Delosangeles, 20, of Tarrytown, pleaded guilty March 17 to one count of conspiracy to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin, and was sentenced Tuesday in White Plains federal court.

Kim said Delosangeles, who is also known as “Taco,” sold heroin to a young man who he knew had recently left a drug rehab program and that, the same day, the young man used the heroin Delosangeles sold him and overdosed and died. [Get Patch’s Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts here.]

“The epidemic of opioid abuse is devastating our communities, costing human lives and ripping families apart,” he said. “This office will aggressively pursue cases against dealers who fuel this deadly epidemic.”

Delosangeles has already served about 13 months of his sentence and will serve an additional 84 months in custody from the date of sentencing, Kim said.

In addition to his prison term, he was sentenced to four years of supervised release and forfeited approximately $30,000 in cash drug proceeds, which were seized during the investigation.

According to the indictment filed in White Plains federal court, as well as public court filings and statements:

From at least in or about May 2015 up to and including in or about February 2016, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, DELOSANGELES and others conspired to sell at least 100 grams of heroin. One of the DELOSANGELES’s customers was a 25-year-old man named Thomas Cipollaro. On November 3, 2015, Mr. Cipollaro, who had just finished a period in a rehabilitation treatment center for his heroin addiction, texted DELOSANGELES, asking to buy heroin. During the ensuring text exchange, DELOSANGELES learned that Mr. Cipollaro had just completed a drug rehabilitation program and that Mr. Cipollaro planned to use the heroin he was about to purchase immediately. DELOSANGELES also bragged to Mr. Cipollaro that his heroin was particularly strong.

Later that same day, Mr. Cipollaro was found unresponsive in his car with 15 empty glassine baggies, consistent with bags used to package heroin, near his body. Despite efforts to revive him, Mr. Cipollaro remained in a coma for the next several days and then died. Autopsy and toxicology reports revealed that Mr. Cipollaro had heroin in his system, which substantially contributed to his death. Even after learning of Mr. Cipollaro’s overdose death, DELOSANGELES continued to sell heroin to customers in and around Westchester County, New York.

Mr. Kim praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Yorktown Police Department, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and the Westchester County Department of Public Safety.

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