It was the kind of loss no family — not even one of Hollywood’s most private — could ever prepare for.
Nineteen-year-old Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, beloved grandson of actor Robert De Niro, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment just two days after moving in. The promising young actor, full of dreams and talent, had unknowingly taken fentanyl-laced pills that ended his life before it truly began.
Now, new details are emerging. Authorities have arrested five men accused of distributing counterfeit Xanax across New York and Long Island. Prosecutors say the deadly pills claimed the lives of three teens that summer — including Leandro, who had just started a Broadway internship. “He had everything ahead of him,” one family friend said softly.
His mother, Drena De Niro, poured her heart out online: “You were my joy, my heart, my sweet angel. I wish love alone could have saved you.” Her father, Robert De Niro, called it a tragedy that “should never have happened.”
Leandro’s death mirrors another — that of Akira Stein, daughter of Blondie co-founder Chris Stein, also lost to the same drug network.
Two families, two young lives, and one haunting reminder: sometimes the smallest pill carries the heaviest pain.
