Drena De Niro says she’ll never forget waking up on July 2, 2023,
“completely distressed, and I had no idea why.”
Minutes later, an NYPD detective arrived at her Tribeca home to tell her that her only child, 19-year-old Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, had died of an accidental fentanyl overdose.
“This detective stood there, and the whole world as I knew it collapsed,”
she said.
Leandro was found in a Financial District apartment with drug paraphernalia nearby. Federal authorities later arrested several alleged dealers accused of selling fentanyl-laced pills that killed three people, including Leandro and 19-year-old Akira Stein. One alleged dealer, 20-year-old Sophia Haley Marks was charged with selling the pills tied to Leandro’s death.
Drena acknowledged she knew her son had been using drugs and said TikTok, the pandemic and fentanyl created a fast-moving danger, per PageSix.
“There was a change in him that was so fast,”
she said. Before opioids, he
“liked to smoke weed, he liked to party,”
but she noticed something was off and believed it stemmed from the internet.
Before his death, Leandro had been
“talking about rehab,”
and had briefly attended one program that
“did a terrible disservice to him.”
Drena said,
“He knew he was over his head. I think he had been exposed to much harder drugs that he didn’t know about.”
In the aftermath, Drena shared a public tribute calling her son
“my beautiful sweet angel”
and said he was
“so deeply loved and appreciated.”
Robert De Niro, who adopted Drena in 1976, said he was
“deeply distressed”
by the loss and asked for privacy for the family.
Determined to honor her son, Drena launched the Leandro De Niro Rodriguez Foundation to raise awareness about fentanyl and support young people struggling with addiction and mental health. She hopes her work
“help[s] prevent other families from ever having to know this pain”
and believes her son is still guiding her.
“You have to find something that gives your purpose,”
she said.
#Clique, what are your thoughts?