Arrests in LES Drug Death Case

The police have arrested Alfredo Morales, one of the men with the two 18 year-olds who died of a drug overdose on East Houston Street last week, was arrested for drug possession in the East Village yesterday. The other man, Roberto Martinez, had been arrested earlier parole violations. But the police may be using the arrests to get more information from him about the deaths of Mellie Carballo and Maria Pesantez. Their overdoses seem to be from both heroin and cocaine; the men told police the four had taken drugs together but they told relatives they had just been "playing cards and drinking malt liquor."

The city has been worried that "bad" heroin or "bad" cocaine will start a rash of overdose deaths, though addicts have been saying "all drugs are bad."