Drug Dealer Convicted of Three Separate Deaths on the Same Day

Amanda Scher, Ross Mtangi and Julia Ghahramani were three working professionals in New York City who did not know each other but shared a deadly commonality: on the same day in March 2021, they each ordered cocaine from Billy Ortega that killed them.

Ortega, 35, of New Jersey, has now been convicted of federal charges that carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

On March 17, 2021, Ortega sold the three professionals — a social worker, a banker and a lawyer — cocaine laced with fentanyl. Prosecutors said he knew the drugs he was selling were potentially deadly because a different customer had sent him a text: “Hey man. Just on a follow up from yesterday – I gave most of my last bag to my buddy and he just called me this second to say he ended up in hospital last night. He had to get a Narcan shot and was released in the early hours.”

Read the source article at abcnews.go.com