Dealer who sold fentanyl-laced cocaine gets 9 years

As Spring Breakers partied on South Florida beaches Thursday, the Lauderhill man who sold fentanyl-laced cocaine to a group of student vacationers last year appeared in federal court to learn that he will spend the next nine years in a federal prison.

Axel “Gee” Casseus, 22, pleaded guilty in December to selling the drugs almost exactly a year ago to the students who rented a home in Wilton Manors for their vacation. Six students overdosed, and two of them went into cardiac arrest and were placed on ventilators after ingesting the dangerously potent, potentially lethal drug.

The group included four cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, including an Army football player, an Army spokesperson previously told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Judge Beth Bloom accepted the agreement between the prosecutor and the defense and sentenced Casseus to nine years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

“If those individuals passed, it would be a much different day for you,” Bloom said.

Casseus met two of the Spring Breakers on the beach in Fort Lauderdale on March 9, 2022, one day before the overdoses, and told them he sold cocaine, a criminal complaint said. His number was saved in one of the Spring Breakers’ phones as “Gee fort Lauderdale plug.”

The deal went through about 4:30 p.m. on March 10, 2022. The students laid out seven lines of cocaine, the complaint said, and within minutes, police were called to the vacation home.

Casseus was arrested after an undercover set-up and later

admitted to selling nearly 44 grams of cocaine to the undercover officer, according to the complaint. The cocaine sold to the undercover officer did not contain fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Ajay Alexander said at the hearing.

Alexander said out of all the drug trafficking cases he has seen in his career, Casseus’ case “is by far one of the more unusual ones.” Casseus’ role was as “middle man” in the deal, and he did not have a consistent supplier.

Two other people were in the car that arrived at the Wilton Manors home with Casseus for the deal, Alexander said.

Witnesses saw a red car parked outside the vacation rental in the 800 block of Northwest 29th Court, and a man who did not match Casseus’ description got out and exchanged money with two Spring Breakers, the criminal complaint said.

The government is still attempting to identify who the “ultimate dealer” is, Alexander said. One of the two people with Casseus that day has been identified.

If the case had gone to trial and returned a guilty verdict, Casseus would have been sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison with a maximum of life.

“It is not, in my opinion, justice to send a person like Mr. Casseus ... to 20 to life,” Alexander said.

Defense attorney Aimee Allegra Ferrer told the court Thursday morning that Casseus, 21 at the time of the drug sale, suffered from drug addiction and homelessness last spring. From Haiti, Casseus survived

the devastating 2010 earthquake, had family members die and later “self-medicated,” Allegra Ferrer said.

“He is a young man with a lot of light in him,” she told the judge.

Casseus wrote a letter to the judge and, after saying he was shy, read it aloud. He apologized to the victims and their families, to his family, his attorney, the judge and the United States.

A brother to multiple siblings, Casseus said he is disappointed in himself for letting them down, unable to be in their lives for the next several years and to “steer them on the right path.”

“I am very aware that now is the time to change,” he said, for himself and his family.

Two cousins and Casseus’ brother wrote letters to Bloom in support of his sentencing. One cousin wrote that he grew up without his father, which greatly affected him. Searching for “acceptance, brotherhood, or whatever he thought was friendship” took him on a “road of bad decisions,” the cousin wrote.

“I know that he will be different, and he will put in the effort required to turn his life around if he’s given the chance,” the cousin wrote. “He is loyal to a fault, not afraid to stand up for others, and always puts his family’s needs above his own.”

His younger brother wrote that without Casseus, the family is left with a hole.

“You know that we miss you very much and think about you every second of the day,” the brother wrote. “You are the only missing piece in our puzzle.”

In a young child’s handwriting, the letter from another cousin asked Bloom to forgive Casseus.

“Axel taught me how to subtract and add so I can do my homework. He also taught me how to ride a bike. He also taught me not to be afraid of anything,” the letter said.

Judge Bloom spoke to Casseus, lecturing him about the choices he made that landed him in her courtroom Thursday morning.

Allegra Ferrer said Casseus didn’t know the cocaine was laced. Bloom said that didn’t justify it.

“It’s the choices that you make that will determine the road you walk,” she told Casseus.

Casseus’ mother attended the hearing, doubling over as Bloom addressed her son. She didn’t speak at the hearing directly but the defense attorney said on her behalf that she “loves her son very much.”

“While you cannot see her, Mr. Casseus, I can tell you she’s wrought with emotion,” Bloom said.

Bloom recommended mental health and substance abuse treatment and that Casseus get his GED and focus on vocation opportunities. Then comes the chance for Casseus to “put this chapter of your life behind you and to recognize that your life is just that — yours,” she said.

A felony burglary charge against Casseus from 2020 is still pending in Broward County court.

Before Casseus was escorted from the room, his mother was allowed to hug him, though he wasn’t allowed to hug her back.