Police cruisers parked in the Stamford Police Department parking lot photographed on August 7, 2024.

NEW YORK — A New York City man has been arrested for selling fentanyl to three people who later suffered fatal overdoses, including a 57-year-old Stamford man, federal officials said. 

Elvin Vila, 50, of the Bronx, was charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and three counts of distribution of narcotics resulting in death, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

“As a result of more than a million tragedies, we all have learned a simple and deeply disturbing truth: if you deal in fentanyl, you deal in death,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton.

Federal officials said a recently unsealed indictment alleges Vila drove from the Bronx to other locations to sell fentanyl to his customers between 2023 and 2026 as part of the drug-trafficking conspiracy. 
 
Officials said Vila’s customers included a 57-year-old Stamford man and that he sold narcotics to the individual at least 10 times in the months leading up to his overdose death on or about April 16, 2025. 

Vila sent the man several text messages asking if he was “good” or “ok” several days after their last meeting, but got no response because the victim had died after consuming the drugs, officials said. 

About one day after his last unanswered text message, Vila delivered narcotics to a 69-year-old man from Port Chester, New York, who later shared them with a 32-year-old woman, officials said. 

The 32-year-old woman, who was also from Port Chester, died of an overdose from the same drugs that Vila had distributed around a week later on or about April 25, 2025, officials said. 

Following the woman’s death, Vila continued to make deliveries of narcotics to the 69-year-old man. The man later died on Jan. 21 from a drug overdose, officials said. 

Officials said law enforcement searched Vila’s house in the Bronx on Thursday and found narcotic powders, narcotics mixing and stamping equipment, numerous glassine envelopes for individual packaging and a safe containing a gun, cash and a ski mask.  

Officials said Vila faces between 20 years to life in prison, if convicted. They noted the Stamford Police Department assisted with the investigation. 

June 9, 2026