Four arrested in connection with death of Hollywood actor
Four people were arrested in Lower Manhattan, New York last week with more than 350 bags of heroin as part of the investigation into the death of the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, a law enforcement told the New York Times.
Narcotics investigators executed search warrants in three apartments in a building where three men and a woman were arrested, and the investigators recovered the bags of heroin inside the apartments.
Information stemming from the investigation into Hoffman’s death led them to the building, the official said. Mr. Hoffman, widely considered one of the best actors of his generation, died on Sunday in an apparent heroin overdose.
An autopsy on the body of Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was to take place in New York last week on Monday, a day after he was found dead in his Manhattan apartment of a suspected heroin overdose.
Heroin
He was discovered with a syringe lodged in his arm and surrounded by envelopes of what appears to have been heroin.
The alarm was reportedly raised when Hoffman failed to turn up on Sunday to collect his three children from their mother, who called a friend to go and check on him.
Police say his death seems to have been the result of an overdose but refused to release further details until the New York medical examiner’s office conducts the autopsy.
Hoffman mesmerized filmgoers with his portrayal of some of the most repellent and yet electrifying characters of the silver screen.
He won an Oscar for his performance as Truman Capote in the 2005 film “Capote” and was nominated for three further Academy Awards as a supporting actor in 2008, 2009 and 2013.
But for all his success, Hoffman struggled in the limelight and with addiction. He spoke less than a year ago about a recent heroin relapse, having been sober for two decades.
Celebrity website TMZ reported that Hoffman admitted in May to falling off the wagon more than a year previously, starting with prescription pills and escalating to snorting heroin.
At the time he said the heroin binge had “lasted a week or so” and that he checked himself into a rehab center for 10 days.
He credited what he called “a great group of friends and family” for helping him, and continued to work on film projects.
But in August he dropped out of shooting the spy thriller Child 44 for “undisclosed reasons” and was replaced by Vincent Cassel, sparking rumors about his health.
The last time he was seen at an official event was the Sundance Film Festival in the US state of Utah in mid-January, where he appeared pale and gaunt.
In an earlier interview with the CBS show “60 minutes” he said he had been sober since he was 22.
In one of his most recent roles, Hoffman played game master Plutarch Heavensbee in the second instalment of the blockbuster “Hunger Games” franchise.
