The playboy ex of Britain’s Princess Beatrice had a deadly new street drug in his system when he overdosed in a Miami hotel room, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Paolo Liuzzo, 41, tested positive for ketamine, cocaine, fentanyl and bromazolam – a powerful new depressant linked to a rash of deaths across the US, according to his autopsy report..
Fentanyl and bromazolam are increasingly combined by dealers to produce ‘benzo-dope’, according to a 2022 US Department of Justice report.
The potent blend proved too much even for seasoned substance abuser Liuzzo, who succumbed to ‘acute combined drug toxicity’, the autopsy states.
Princess Beatrice's 'first love' Paolo Liuzzo was found dead inside a Miami hotel room of a suspected overdose aged 41 after a long battle with drugs, gambling and violence. The pair are pictured together in Paris
The New York native was best known for dating Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughter Beatrice between 2005 and 2006. She was 17 at the time and he was 24.
Three years prior to their relationship he was charged with the 2002 manslaughter of Jonathan Duchatellier, a fellow student at the College of the Holy Cross.
It was alleged that he beat the 19-year-old to death with his fists but the charges were downgraded to assault and battery and Liuzzo served a mere 100 hours of community service.
In 2009 he faced further charges in Australia for crashing a $90,000 Audi into traffic lights, possessing cocaine and failing to pay for food and lodging at a casino.
In recent years Liuzzo had been styling himself as an art consultant and living in a $3,700 per month condo in downtown Miami.
On February 7 he was found unresponsive by staff inside his $140-per night, tenth-floor room at the citizenM Miami Worldcenter hotel and declared dead at 3:34pm.
‘Police impounded extensive drug paraphernalia from the scene. Per police, there were no signs of trauma or foul play,’ the medical examiner’s report stated.
‘He drank alcohol occasionally. He was known to use drugs but it was unknown what he used.’
It was during his college days that Liuzzo had his first serious run-in with the law. In 2002, Liuzzo was convicted in connection with a fight that killed a fellow student, 19-year-old Jonathan Duchatellier
Liuzzo was initially charged with manslaughter but later pleaded guilty to a charge of assault and battery
Beatrice, her mother Sarah Ferguson and sister Princess Eugenie attended a charity auction for cancer care in London on May 14
Beatrice is now married to British property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who is descended from a noble Italian family
Liuzzo was found dead on February 7 in a room at the citizenM Miami Worldcenter hotel at 3.22pm, according to officer Michael Vega, of the Miami Police Department
The report noted that Liuzzo had a history of depression but had never expressed suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide before, according to his mother. His death was determined to be an accident.
Bromazolam, a synthetic benzodiazepine, was created in 1976 as a sedative, muscle relaxant and possible treatment for epilepsy.
It resurfaced as a designer drug in Sweden around a decade ago, sold as a powder, pill or gummy, causing delirium, hallucinations and even coma in users.
It’s yet to be classified at the federal level but multiple US states have made it a schedule one drug.
Bromazolam isincreasingly combined with fentanyl by dealers to produce ‘benzo-dope’, according to a 2022 US Department of Justice report.
In June 2022, the Department of Justice reported that bromazolam seizures were surging across the nation and it was frequently combined with fentanyl at the street level.
An April study linked the fledgling drug to 44 deaths in San Francisco alone in 2023.
In January Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody warned: ‘It is imperative that Floridians understand how dangerous bromazolam is on its own.
‘It is also reportedly mixed with fentanyl, leading to adverse health conditions, overdoses and even deaths - including here in Florida. Please, never use an illicit substance. Just one pill can kill.’
Liuzzo, from Woodbury, New York, was considered a dashing young socialite at the time of his romance with Beatrice.
They kept the relationship secret for almost a year but split in May 2006 when reports of the manslaughter charge surfaced, causing a sensation.
Her parents Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the duch*ess of York, didn’t oppose the pairing, however – the latter saying: 'We all have our own journeys and have to learn our way but Beatrice is a sensible girl, soon to be 18, with many friends including Paolo.’
It turned out that Liuzzo had flouted the conditions of his probation to vacation with the family in the exclusive Swiss ski resort of Verbier in 2006.
Liuzzo is pictured here with former girlfriend Arianna Pappas, who captioned the photo 'Beso Beach with my Babe! @paolo.liuzzo'
Liuzzo shared this picture of himself with a friend on his personal Facebook account in 2023
'Police impounded extensive drug paraphernalia from the scene,' Liuzzo's autopsy report says
The toxicology report listed several drugs including cocaine, fentanyl, bromazalom and ketamine
His three-year probation was extended by the US courts as punishment, forcing Beatrice to end the fledgling romance.
A year later he embarrassed the Royal Family by claiming marijuana was smoked in the presence of Beatrice, her sister Eugenie, and their mother, while they were all on vacation together in Jamaica in 2005.
The self-described playboy also confessed to cheating on Beatrice during their relationship – and said she had wanted to introduce him to the Queen.
'I’m not a bad person. But it’s like putting heroin in front of Pete Doherty. Women are my weakness,' he boasted, likening himself to the hellraising Libertines musician.
Summing up his sad demise, a former acquaintance told DailyMail.com: ‘Paolo really pushed the image that he was half mobster, half playboy and somehow 100 percent of both.
‘He was high energy and high volume. Larger than life and quite charming but quick to turn and with a nasty temper.
‘He was quick to pick a fight, quick to make a scene and then back to his “charming” self as if nothing had happened. It was always about the show with him.
‘He’d go through bottles of Patron tequila and bumps of cocaine for days. The bigger and louder the better but there was always something kind of desperate about it, that’s the truth.’
