LA Man Held in Drug Sale to Mac Miller

Filing says rapper was given counterfeit opioid pills 2 days before he died
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 4, 2019 6:15 PM CDT
Man Arrested in Drug Sale 2 Days Before Mac Miller Died
Mac Miller performs on his Space Migration Tour in Philadelphia in 2013. Miller died last September.   (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP, File)

A Los Angeles man was arrested Wednesday on charges that he sold counterfeit opioid pills to Mac Miller two days before the rapper died of an overdose. Cameron James Pettit, 28, who lives in the Hollywood Hills, is expected to appear in court later in the day, federal prosecutors said in a statement, the AP reports. The 26-year-old Miller, who was known to many as Ariana Grande's ex-boyfriend but was a respected artist in his own right, was found dead at his San Fernando Valley home on Sept. 7, 2018. A Drug Enforcement Agency affidavit alleges that Miller asked Pettit for oxycodone and other drugs, but on Sept. 5, 2018, Pettit gave Miller counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with the powerful opioid fentanyl. An autopsy found that Miller died from an accidental overdose, via a combination of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol.

Authorities found drugs they believe were from Pettit in Miller's home and evidence that Miller had crushed and sniffed oxycodone provided by Pettit. Pettit has only been charged with providing the drugs, however, not with having a direct role in Miller's death. After reports of Miller's death circulated, Pettit sent an Instagram message to a friend saying, "Most likely I will die in jail," according to the affidavit. Pettit goes on to write, "I'm gonna get off the grid. Move to another country." Investigators also obtained texts between Miller and Pettit before the sale, in which Miller proclaims his love for oxycodone, or "percs" for the brand name Percocet, and also asks for "bars" of Xanax and a "ball" of cocaine. "When can u get em?" Miller asks, according to a transcript of the exchange contained in court filings. "Probably in an hour or 2. They are 30 ea," Pettit replies. The autopsy report said Miller had a history of drug and alcohol abuse, but had not previously overdosed. "We owe it to the victims and their families to aggressively target the drug dealers that cause these overdose deaths," the US attorney said Wednesday, per CBS. (Grande grieved in a public note to Miller.)

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