Inside the room, they found Andrea Zamperoni, a missing chef, wrapped in bed linens and stuffed in a trash can with one foot protruding, according to federal investigators.
A woman who answered the door, Angelina Barini, was charged Monday in connection with the death of Zamperoni, a chef for the high-end restaurant chain Cipriani, and two other men found dead from drug overdoses in other Queens motels.
On Monday afternoon, a federal magistrate judge ordered Barini be held without bail on charges of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute one or more substances containing fentanyl. The powerful opioid has helped drive overdose deaths to record levels in New York City and across the United States.
Barini, 41, told investigators she was a prostitute and had given Zamperoni liquid ecstasy after he paid her for sex, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit.
Though toxicology tests had not been completed on Zamperoni, the charging document said the two other men had died after taking drugs Barini had given them that were laced with fentanyl, a powerful narcotic.
Barini’s arrest grew out of a federal investigation into overdose deaths in New York City hotel rooms since July. The criminal complaint against her mentions two co-conspirators who investigators said were Barini’s pimp and a drug supplier. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined to say whether investigators had arrested or identified them.
Investigators said the trio gave narcotics to “multiple” clients of Barini and occasionally stole their property once they were drugged and incapacitated.
At her initial court appearance, Barini appeared dressed in a baggy gray sweatshirt, sweatpants and sneakers.
She did not enter a plea.
Her court-appointed lawyer, Mildred Whalen of the Federal Defenders of New York in Brooklyn, said she was still working to determine Barini’s citizenship status.
The police said officers had arrested Barini, of Rego Park, more than 24 times for trespassing and possessing stolen items and illegal drugs like meth and crack cocaine. She was most recently arrested Dec. 19 for shoplifting, after she was caught on surveillance video stealing $119 in merchandise from a Macy’s department store in Queens, the police said.
Tess DeGuzman, a spokeswoman for Cipriani, said the restaurants “are deeply saddened to learn this new information and for the world to lose such a kind, young and vibrant talent like Andrea due to the actions of these people.”
Zamperoni, 33, had been reported missing Aug. 19, two days before officers found him, the police said.
A security camera recorded Zamperoni entering the hotel with a woman who looked like Barini just before 5 a.m. on Aug. 18, federal investigators said. Around 1:30 p.m., she was filmed going outside without him to get a trash can.
The next day, Zamperoni failed to show up for work at the Cipriani Dolci restaurant in Grand Central Terminal, where he was the head chef. That was uncharacteristic of him. Fernando Dallorso, the general manager of Cipriani in New York, called Zamperoni a “dedicated hard worker” who cooked six days a week and “never missed a day of work.”
On Aug. 21, Barini opened the door to Room 15 at 8:30 p.m. when the police knocked, then quickly shut it. Officers heard what sounded like someone moving around in the room, then smelled the stench of Zamperoni’s body in the trash can.
Barini “stated in sum and substance and in part that she did not do it, her pimp made her do it and it was not her,” the criminal complaint said.
Inside the room, investigators also found Zamperoni’s American Express credit card, glass pipes used for smoking narcotics, bottles of bleach, bleach-covered towels, cellphones, a power saw and an empty suitcase. They also found a glass of purple liquid with powder around the rim.
Barini told investigators that her pimp and several other men had been in the room and had discussed cutting up Zamperoni’s body. She said the pimp, who was not identified by name, would not allow her to call the police, according to the criminal complaint.
Norrele Silvero, who was in court for the arraignment, said her son, Jean-Alessander Silvero, was one of the men who died while with Barini. She said Silvero lived near the Crown Motor Inn in Woodside, where he was found dead on July 11.
Norrele Silvero fought back emotion as she described Jean-Alessander Silvero, 28, a construction worker with a girlfriend. She said he had left home the night he died to hang out with friends, and she did not know how he had met Barini.
Barini told investigators that Jean-Alessander Silvero — identified in the complaint as John Doe #2 — snorted three lines of a drug she had given him. The medical examiner determined he “died as a result of fentanyl intoxication,” according to the complaint.
“It’s so surreal at this point but it’s very, very difficult as a mom,” Silvero said outside the courtroom. “I hope it’s just a bad dream.”
A woman who appeared to be Barini was seen leaving a motel in Astoria on July 4, about 90 minutes before a third man was found dead, the complaint said.
The city medical examiner determined that the man, whom the police identified as Jesus Rosario, 51, died from “acute intoxication due to the combined effects of alcohol, methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl.”
The men’s deaths came amid a drug overdose epidemic so severe that it has reduced life expectancy in the United States. Barini’s arrest was announced the same day that New York City health officials said that overdose deaths decreased slightly last year from 2017, the first overall decrease since 2010, mirroring a national trend.
Still, the continuing decline in New York City has not been felt evenly across the city. Overdoses have risen in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island, while Brooklyn and Queens saw decreases, according to the health department.
Zamperoni, originally from Milan in Italy, worked for the Cipriani restaurant chains for about 12 years, colleagues said. He had moved to London with his twin brother, Stefano Zamperoni, who is the sous chef of London’s Cipriani.
Andrea Zamperoni started as a salad preparer, one of the lowest positions in the kitchen, and rose up the ranks to become a chef.
He had worked at the Cipriani in Las Vegas before becoming the head chef of Cipriani Dolci in Manhattan about a year and a half ago.
Zamperoni was known for stepping out of his kitchen to mingle with customers, who have been sending flowers and emails to the restaurant since his death, Dallorso said. His co-workers made a memorial of him in the kitchen with his portrait and a bouquet of dried flowers.
“Everyone in the kitchen right now is heartbroken, from the dish washer to the chef,” Dallorso said.
Ignacio Albo, 29, a sous chef at Cipriani Dolci, said Zamperoni was a perfectionist in the kitchen, and if a dish did not meet his standards, he would make his staff redo it.
Albo is now serving as Cipriani Dolci’s acting chef. Every morning in recent days, he said, he has walked by Zamperoni’s portrait in the kitchen and has said “Bongiorno” to his former boss.
“If you didn’t see Andrea with a smile, most likely the world was ending,” Albo said. “He always had a big goofy smile.”
This article originally appeared in
.