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By Beth Stibal |

Arrest made after West Point cadets overdose on laced cocaine in Broward

Congress Opioids
FILE – In this June 6, 2017 file photo, a reporter holds up an example of the amount of fentanyl that can be deadly after a news conference about deaths from fentanyl exposure, at The Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Arlington, Va. The House dove Tuesday, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, into a two-week vote-a-thon on dozens of bills aimed at opioid abuse, as lawmakers try to tackle a crisis that’s killing tens of thousands a year and to score a popular win they can tout for the midterm elections. A handful of the measures are contentious, including one Republican bill that would create new criminal penalties for making or trafficking certain synthetic drugs containing fentanyl. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

UPDATE:

One person has been arrested after a group of spring breakers from West Point suffered a mass fentanyl overdose at a vacation rental in South Florida, authorities said Friday night.

Police say, Axel Giovany Casseus was charged with trafficking cocaine and is being held in the Broward County jail with bond set at $50,000.

This comes after seven people overdosed on the drug and were hospitalized Thursday in Fort Lauderdale, with at least two still in critical condition, officials say.

The Broward Sheriff’s office identified Casseus as the suspected drug dealer and set up an undercover drug deal with the 21-year-old and he bit.  BSO then took him into custody.

Deputies say Casseus admitted to making a “transaction” in Wilton Manors.  However, the cocaine the undercover detectives received from him was not laced with fentanyl.

In a statement earlier, the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. said it was “aware of the situation involving West Point cadets” that occurred in Wilton Manors on Thursday night.

West Point cadets and an Army football player are reportedly among six victims of fentanyl overdose at a Wilton Manors vacation rental home.  Two of the college students are in critical condition and are intubated in the ICU, officials said Friday.  One victim was treated and released.

The six male victims are in their early 20s and were in Florida for spring break from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York, officials said. None of their names has been released.

“The U.S. Military Academy is aware of the situation involving West Point cadets, which occurred Thursday night in Wilton Manors, FL. The incident is currently under investigation and no other details are available at this time,” a West Point spokesperson said in a statement.

ORIGINAL STORY:
Spring Break is getting off to a rocky start in South Florida for some college students who got a hold of some drugs cut with a deadly pain killer.

A Spring Break party at a Wilton Manors rental house last night ended with six college students overdosing on fentanyl-laced cocaine, two by accident.
Unfortunately, in an effort to help their friends, two students who were not using the drugs overdosed too.
At least two of them immediately went into cardiac arrest and two others in the house tried to help their friends by administering CPR and they went down.
Unfortunately, those two were exposed to the fentanyl by giving the victims mouth-to-mouth, according to officials.
Fentanyl is 100 times more powerful than morphine and just two milligrams of the synthetic opioid is considered a lethal dose, according to a public safety alert from the DEA.
One student is in critical condition, and the other five are in stable condition.