Photo Credit: Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images

Heroin Traffickers Selling Kobe Bryant Branded Drugs Arrested In The Bronx

Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among the nine people on board the helicopter that crashed and left no survivors in Calabasas, California on Sunday, January 26.

Unfortunately, with tragedies like this, there always are people who are trying to profit off it. I’ve seen numerous new business pages pop up on Facebook and Instagram, that sell cheaply made and profit-oriented Kobe merchandise. It’s a shame, but that’s how it is.

But this one likely is the craziest way I’ve seen someone make profit off of Bryant’s death. On Friday, the DEA and New York City Police seized over $1 million worth of heroin that lead to the arrest of six people in the Bronx. They attempted to distribute heroin and fentanyl branded with Kobe Bryant’s alter-ego nickname, ‘Black Mamba’.

Per Newsweek:

“Several other stamps that were used included one that read “Black Mamba 24,” a reference to Bryant, who died in a January helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others. “Black Mamba” was Bryant’s nickname, and “24” his jersey number.

“Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we arrested six drug traffickers who aptly branded their product ‘coronavirus’,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan said in a press release. “Traffickers market their drugs like businesses, branding their product with stamps to attract users, like ’24 Black Mamba’; or use an ‘Antrax’ stamp to designate origins and reference enforcer gangs of the Sinaloa Cartel.”

Outstanding work by the Drug Enforcement Task Force — yesterday, it concluded an investigation into a different kind of pandemic, by:

✅ Dismantling a Bronx heroin / fentanyl mill.

✅ Arresting 6 subjects.

✅ Seizing 120,000 glassines of the poison and $25,000. pic.twitter.com/bPoYKMA9QA

— Edward A. Caban (@NYPDPC) May 8, 2020