A Ridge man was charged on Wednesday with distributing heroin that caused the death of a 20-year-old Kings Park man last year, authorities said.

Richard Jacobellis, 23, distributed heroin on Long Island from 2012 until his arrest last month, U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said. His heroin caused the death of Nicholas Weber and nearly killed another man in 2015, Capers said. In March 2015, one of Jacobellis's drug customers overdosed after using heroin that Jacobellis sold to him, Capers said. Suffolk County officers were able to quickly administer Naloxone, a nasal spray that reverses the effect of an opioid overdose, and save the man's life.

After that, Jacobellis continued selling heroin to Long Island residents, prosecutors said. On May 17, 2016, he drove from his home in Ridge to Kings Park and sold $100 of heroin to Weber, prosecutors said. Weber, a Kings Park High School graduate, used that heroin and died shortly after, Capers said.

While in high school, Weber was the Suffolk County wrestling champion for his weight class, and upon graduation, he was attending Suffolk County Community College. He had been accepted to Stony Brook University where he was going to study physics starting in the fall of 2016. Despite learning that his heroin killed Weber, Jacobellis continued to sell heroin up until a few weeks ago, Capers said.

Last month, a confidential informant who was working with law enforcement contacted Jacobellis to purchase heroin, Capers said.

He agreed to sell heroin to the confidential informant and was arrested in Ridge after making the transaction, Capers said.

If convicted, Jacobelli could face a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life. "As alleged, the defendant is a drug dealer who for years peddled poisonous heroin to Long Islanders," Capers said. "The heroin epidemic on Long Island has cut short far too many young lives, like Nicholas.' To those heroin dealers who flood our streets with this highly addictive narcotic, be forewarned: if you sell heroin, my Office and our law enforcement partners will prosecute you."

