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“For years, Robert Diaz peddled heroin and other drugs in and around Rockland County, contributing to the opioid crisis plaguing our community today and causing at least one victim to overdose,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said. “Today’s sentence should serve as a message to those seeking to profit off of this tragic epidemic.”
According to the indictment, Diaz, of Haverstraw, who goes by the names “Facey” or “Face,” sold drugs to users in Rockland County between 2012 and May 2017.
On or about Dec. 15, 2016, Diaz, 50, provided heroin to an individual who overdosed after using the heroin. Medical personnel were able to save the victim's life after using naloxone, the indictment said.
Diaz indicated that he was well aware that the narcotics he and at least eight others were distributing contained fentanyl, were particularly dangerous, and had caused adverse reactions in multiple drug customers, including the overdose, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
But Diaz continued obtaining and selling heroin, expressing on one occasion that his customers were doing the “fentanyl dance” and that he had a “new connect” for “straight up fentanyl” that his customers “love[d],” the indictment said.
Officials charged Diaz and the eight others with participating in a drug trafficking organization and selling large amounts of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and crack cocaine. The drugs were obtained in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens.
Diaz, who pleaded guilty on Feb. 14, was also sentenced to four years supervised release.
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