NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 23: Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, are displayed before a press conference regarding a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, September 23, 2016 in New York City. New York State Attorney General Eric Scheiderman’s office announced Friday that authorities in New York state have made a record drug bust, seizing 33 kilograms of heroin and 2 kilograms of fentanyl. According to the attorney general’s office, it is the largest seizure in the 46 year history of New York’s Organized Crime Task Force. Twenty-five peopole living in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Arizona and New Jersey have been indicted in connection with the case. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
An alleged drug trafficker has been charged with murder in connection with the fentanyl overdose death of a Florida Keys woman last year, authorities said.
Melvin Anthony Howard, 56, was indicted on a first-degree murder charge in the Sept. 2, 2022 death of 53-year-old Amanda Roberts, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.
Roberts was found dead at her home on Grassy Key and the medical examiner's office determined the cause of her death to be a fentanyl and diazepam overdose.
Authorities said Roberts bought the drugs from 23-year-old Alexis Joy Sather, who was also arrested on a murder charge in March in connection with Roberts' death.
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Sather bought the drugs from Howard, authorities said.
Howard, of Miami-Dade, was arrested in April after a 15-month investigation found he was spearheading the distribution of approximately 4.5 kilograms of fentanyl throughout Monroe County, authorities said.
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"I want to thank the men and woman of the Sheriff’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office, and our federal partners with the DEA, for their continued hard work to ensure that those who peddle this poison in our community are held to account," Monroe Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement.
Sather remains behind bars without bond, while Howard was being held on a $1.3 million bond, the sheriff's office said.
