California man arrested for allegedly selling fentanyl-laced pills to Mac Miller before his death

A California man was arrested Wednesday and accused of selling rapper Mac Miller fentanyl-laced drugs before his death last year.

Cameron James Pettit, 28, was allegedly part of a group that sold Miller counterfeit 30-milligram oxycodone pills that contained fentanyl, as well as cocaine and Xanax, two days before the rapper — whose real name was Malcolm James McCormick — died on Sept. 7, the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a release.

{mosads}Miller allegedly texted Pettit days before his death asking for drugs. On Sept. 5, Pettit dropped off the drugs to Miller at his recording studio. Miller died two days later at age 26, and the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner concluded that he died of mixed drug toxicity involving fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol.

Investigators believe Miller died after snorting the counterfeit, fentanyl-laced oxycodone pills, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday.

After news outlets began reporting Miller’s death, Pettit sent a message to a friend: “Most likely I will die in jail,” prosecutors said.

Drug Enforcement Administration officials and Los Angeles Police Department officers arrested Pettit, who lives in the Hollywood Hills area. He faces one count of distribution of a controlled substance.

Pettit was expected to appear in court Wednesday afternoon in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

“Fentanyl disguised as a genuine pharmaceutical is a killer — which is being proven every day in America,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said. “Drugs laced with cheap and potent fentanyl are increasingly common, and we owe it to the victims and their families to aggressively target the drug dealers that cause these overdose deaths.”

Of the 70,000 drug overdose deaths that occurred in 2017, about 28,000 deaths involved synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. 

Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is often laced into drugs like heroin, cocaine and counterfeit drugs to create a cheaper high, often without the users’ knowledge, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.