NEW YORK CITY — A Bronx drug dealer was arrested Monday for delivering heroin to a woman in rehab who then overdosed on the drugs, officials said.
Anthony Dodaj, 46, stands accused of supplying heroin to 41-year-old Ivy Katz on Jan. 1, a few weeks after she voluntarily checked herself into a hospital-based drug rehab center for opioid dependence, according to the criminal complaint.
Dodaj was with Katz in the hospital from about 2:20 to 2:44 p.m., and roughly 30 minutes after he left, Katz was found in her room comatose with a heroin needle in her arm, the complaint states.
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She remained unconscious until Jan. 16, when her family requested that she be taken off life support, and she died soon after, court documents say.
Dodaj was arrested on Monday and charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin resulting in death. He faces between 20 years to life in prison.
"As alleged, the defendant preyed on the vulnerable," NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said in a statement, "peddling poison to those seeking help."
Dodaj's attorney, Richard Lind, did not respond to a request for comment.
