The death of Robert De Niro\u2019s grandson, Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, shook Hollywood and devastated his family. The 19-year-old was found unresponsive in his New York apartment on July 2, 2023 \u2014 just two days after moving in to begin a theater internship. Investigators later determined he died from fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federal authorities arrested five men accused of distributing the deadly pills across New York and Long Island, linking the drugs to the deaths of three teens, including Leandro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His mother, Drena De Niro, shared a heartbreaking tribute, calling him her \u201csweet angel\u201d and expressing deep grief and disbelief. Robert De Niro also spoke publicly, saying he was \u201cdeeply distressed\u201d and never imagined such a tragedy could touch his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another teen connected to the same drug network \u2014 Akira Stein, daughter of Blondie co-founder Chris Stein \u2014 also died from fentanyl-tainted pills months earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leandro, who had already appeared in several films including A Star Is Born, was just beginning his own career. His family now hopes justice is served for a life lost far too soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The death of Robert De Niro\u2019s grandson, Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, shook Hollywood and devastated his family. The 19-year-old was found unresponsive in his New York apartment on… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":295,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15268,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15265\/revisions\/15268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}