When Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his West Village apartment on Sunday, full and empty envelopes of heroin marked with an ace of spades were discovered near his body.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's 'Ace of Spades' Heroin

In total in Hoffman’s apartment, law enforcement agents found 49 sealed bags of heroin and 23 bags that were empty. Fifty-nine of the bags bore the Ace of Spades label, while the remaining 13 were labeled with Ace of Hearts, reported the New York Post. The heroin brand Ace of Spades was prevalent in the New York City area a number of years ago, but has recently seen a resurgence.

In 2009, Ace of Spades heroin was found in a major bust in Queens after a prolonged investigation, according to the Daily Beast. “This investigation targeted a form of powdered heroin that is easily inhaled rather than injected,” U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said in a statement. “This type of heroin is growing in popularity in urban and suburban areas across the country. As a result, the number of overdoses caused by heroin is growing nationally, too.”

On Jan. 16, Ace of Spades heroin was back on the NYPD’s radar when 49-year-old Kendall Sistrunk was discovered attempting to transport heroin to Stamford, Conn. “Police found 44 bags of heroin with an Ace of Spades brand with a street value of about $900,” Capt. Richard Conklin, head of Stamford’s Narcotics and Organized Crime Squad, told the Stamford Advocate.

Investigators Look Into Ace of Spades, Fentanyl-Laced Heroin

When the Ace of Spades envelopes were found in Hoffman’s apartment, investigators started taking action to locate who provided the drugs to the Oscar-winning actor. “An internal e-mail went out to all supervisors asking if anyone has had any experience with those brand names of drugs,” a law-enforcement source told The Post. “Any time we make a narcotics arrest, we include the brand name on the arrest report and store it in our system so our investigators can see where those brands are being sold.”

Investigators are also looking to determine if the batch of heroin that killed Hoffman contained fentanyl, an opiate prescribed to cancer patients that can be up to 100 times stronger than morphine, reported Fox News. Dozens of overdose deaths that have occurred over the last several months are thought to have been a result of the lethal heroin-fentanyl combination.

– Chelsea Regan

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