Doctor Accused in Fatal Fentanyl Deal

MANHATTAN, NY – A Manhattan doctor is facing federal charges after authorities allege he peddled fentanyl that led to the death of a 32-year-old man on the Upper West Side. Avinoam Luzon, 32, was taken into custody this morning and will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn today, accused of turning a medical degree into a death sentence.

The case, announced jointly by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill, centers around the October 22, 2016, exchange between Luzon and Gabriel Tramiel. Investigators claim text messages recovered from Tramiel’s phone detail a deal for narcotics, culminating in a meeting where payment was arranged. Just hours later, Tramiel was found dead by his wife.

“As a medical doctor and graduate student in public health, Avinoam Luzon was supposed to help the sick get healthy, but instead he allegedly helped fuel the nation’s most serious health crisis, the opioid abuse epidemic,” Bharara stated. “As an alleged drug dealer with a medical degree, Luzon sold fentanyl to Gabriel Tramiel, a 32-year-old New Yorker, and it allegedly killed him.”

The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined Tramiel died of a fentanyl overdose. Surveillance footage from the victim’s apartment building reportedly shows Tramiel using a nasal spray – believed to contain the fatal dose – in the elevator shortly before his death. The complaint alleges Luzon requested payment from Tramiel for the narcotics prior to the meeting.

NYPD Commissioner O’Neill vowed continued aggressive investigation of every overdose in the city. “We will continue to investigate every single overdose across this city and to make arrests like this,” O’Neill said. “Our goal: to protect life and deter those who peddle these deadly opioids.”

Luzon is charged with one count of narcotics distribution resulting in death, a crime carrying a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life behind bars. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin Portlock of the Office’s Narcotics Unit. Authorities emphasized that the charges are allegations and Luzon is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The NYPD and the New York State Department of Health’s Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement assisted in the investigation.