Suspect arrested, charged in connection with overdose of West Point cadets in Broward
The Broward Sheriff’s Office arrested a suspect in connection to six students, four of whom were West Point cadets, who overdosed Thursday on a substance laced with fentanyl in a Wilton Manors home.
Seven people were hospitalized, in total. One was a woman who was taken to the hospital after the cadets when she started feeling sick, BSO said.
West Point Public Affairs Office clarified Monday that four cadets were taken to hospital. One was a football player.
Lauderdale Lakes resident Axel Giovany Casseus, 21, was charged with trafficking cocaine of less than 200 grams, according to online court records. That’s from an alleged sale to an undercover detective. As BSO noted Sunday, he has not been charged with the sale of the drugs involved in Thursday’s overdoses.
As of Sunday, he remained in Broward County Jail with bond set at $50,000. Casseus had been out on bond after an arrest on a burglary charge in 2020.
Bond court video shown on an NBC6 newscast shows the bond court judge what direct connection Casseus had to the overdoses.
A Broward County Drug Task Force detective answered, “He admitted to being inside the vehicle. He admitted to participating in some form or fashion to that transaction at that house in Wilton Manors. And , we found the phone that was used to communicate with them on, in his possession at that time.”
What the arrest report says
According to the arrest report, on Thursday, Broward County Drug Task Force (BSDTF) detectives “were able to ascertain the cellphone number of the alleged drug dealer who supplied the narcotics to the victims.
On (Friday), “while acting in an undercover capacity, a BCDTF detective initiated contact with the dealer, later identified as Axel Giovany Casseus, via the acquired cell phone number.”
Through text and phone call chats, detectives say Casseus agreed to sell two “eight balls” or seven and one-half grams of cocaine in exchange for $1,000.
Casseus and the undercover detective agreed to complete the transaction at 1800 S. Federal Hwy., the arrest report said, in a parking lot shared by a Four Points by Sheraton and a Chick-fil-A.
At about 3:20 Friday afternoon at that location, the report says, Casseus was recorded on audio and video selling an undercover detective 43 grams of cocaine for $1,000.
After the sale, task force detectives kept a watch on Casseus until he went to 2501 N. Ocean Dr. in Hollywood where, at 6:35 Friday evening, he was busted.
The report said Casseus was found with $600 of the undercover detectives’ money in his left front jeans pocket and, in his right hand, the cellphone that was used to communicate with the undercover detective and one of the overdose victims.
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 11:39 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the number of students who were from West Point. Four of them are West Point cadets.
