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Retired doc busted with drugs, guns and women aboard 80-foot party yacht off Nantucket has terminal cancer

Possible overdose victim was crew member, not prostitute, lawyer says.

Coast Guard rescues 3 people off Nantucket

Coast Guard crews responded to the sinking of a fishing vessel.

Florida Dr. Scott Anthony Burke, the 69-year-old yachtsman who police say they busted with more than 40 grams of cocaine and 14 grams of ketamine last week, was holding a party on board a boat last week as he faces terminal cancer, according to his lawyer.

"To have this man potentially spend the rest of his life waiting for a case in jail, to me, would be very, very tragic," the lawyer said, in reference to his client's illness.

Burke is facing drug and gun charges after police boarded his vessel last week in response to a report of a woman possibly overdosing. In the bedroom with the woman, they found cocaine and a pistol, and a search warrant allegedly turned up a substantial amount of drugs and another gun which the doctor didn't have a license for. 

His attorney Henry Brennan told the Nantucket Current that additional allegations from an anonymous law enforcement source that prostitutes were on board is "disgusting" slander.

FLORIDA MAN BUSTED WITH GUNS, DRUGS AND ‘PROSTITUTES’ IN LUXE NANTUCKET YACHT RAID

Police searched the 80-foot Nordhavn yacht Jess Conn Tuesday, Sept. 5, and allegedly recovered a stash of cocaine in a safe, ketamine and unlicensed handguns. Its owner, Dr. Scott Burke, was arrested. (@kitnoble/@nantucketcurrent, Inset: Scott Burke/LinkedIn)

The woman on board was a friend of Burke's hired captain, Brennan told the paper, and a staff member.

"There was a party on the boat, and [Burke] was spending time with friends," he said. "As we suggested, the boat is large. He has a captain. He has staff. There was a cook. And sometimes there are people who serve as staff waiters, cleaners and things like that."

Police responded to Burke's boat, the Jess Conn, last Tuesday after an unidentified reporting party called their non-emergency dispatch line. Burke's 80-foot Nordhavn trawler has been visible in Nantucket Harbor for days after his arrest.

When first responders arrived in the master bedroom to look at the victim, they spotted a bag of cocaine on the nightstand and a loaded pistol on a bookshelf, according to the incident report.

Scott Anthony Burke is held on bail in Plymouth District Court by Judge James Sullivan. The retired Florida surgeon is facing gun and drug charges, related to an incident on his yacht. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

After obtaining a search warrant, police went back and say they recovered 43.4 grams of cocaine and 14.1 grams of ketamine.

Neither Burke nor his attorney could immediately be reached for comment.

The doctor was one of the first international doctors to reach Haiti in 2010 following a devastating earthquake and performed more than 100 surgeries there, his lawyer told the judge at his bail hearing, according to the Current.

BEACHGOERS ON EDGE AS SHARKS SEEN PROWLING IN BLOOD-RED WATERS: VIDEO

Dr. Scott Anthony Burke, right, poses with his family on the back of his luxury yacht, the Jess Conn. (Tony Burkenstock/Facebook)

A source close to the investigation reportedly told the Nantucket Current that authorities also encountered prostitutes on board, but police have not confirmed that claim, and court records do not show any prostitution-related charges against Burke.

"That's certainly not in my press release," Lt. Angus MacVicar, the Nantucket Police Department's public information officer, told Fox News Digital.

Burke allegedly told police he had a license for the handguns — but police said his Florida license was not only invalid in Massachusetts, it expired last year. He now faces a dozen gun and drug charges and was released on $200,000 bail.

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Public records show Burke obtained his medical license in Colorado in 1981. It was last renewed in 2019. He has owned at least two other large vessels over the years, 90 and 58 feet long, also named Jess Conn. 

According to his LinkedIn profile, Burke also founded a medical lien service firm called Injury Finance in 2003 and as a physician specialized in spine rehab and pain. His bio said he retired from active medical practice.

The investigation remains ongoing, but police declined to comment on potential additional charges.

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Nantucket cops find drugs, guns, prostitutes on retired doc’s fancy yacht, allison quinn.

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Tim Clayton - Corbis via Getty

A retired doctor has reportedly been arrested after police found drugs, guns, and prostitutes on his luxury yacht in Nantucket Harbor. The Nantucket Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration searched the 70-foot vessel Tuesday after a “wellness check” for a woman on board, according to the Nantucket Current . The owner, 69-year-old Scott Burke, now faces drug trafficking and weapons charges, police said in a statement Wednesday. Burke, a retired physician from Colorado, is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 11.

Retired doctor charged with drug trafficking, illegal gun possession after arrest aboard yacht in Nantucket Harbor

Flagged in the Cayman Islands, the 80-foot yacht had pulled into Nantucket Harbor nearly two weeks ago, joining the legion of luxury vessels that visit the glamorous island each summer.

But before 8 a.m. Tuesday, police received a distressing call. A woman on board the yacht did not want to be there, police said, and needed medical assistance. She was under the influence of drugs and had possibly overdosed.

When officers, joined by Coast Guard personnel, arrived at the Jess Conn, its owner, a retired doctor living in Florida, led them to his bedroom, where the woman said she did not feel safe, according to a police report. In plain view, a loaded handgun rested on a bookshelf, police said. On the night stand was a plastic bag of cocaine.

As medics attended to the woman, who was taken to Nantucket Cottage Hospital, Scott Anthony Burke, 69, was arrested on gun and drug charges after investigators found more than 43 grams of cocaine, roughly 14 grams of ketamine, two handguns, and various ammunition in the main floor bedroom, according to a police report.

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Burke, who lives in Key Largo, Fla., said he had a license for the guns, but authorities determined it had expired last year in that state, police said.

After Burke was read his Miranda rights, he told investigators “he was the owner of the boat, the bedroom they were located in was his, and that the firearms on the boat were his,” according to the police report. The report did not say whether other people were on board.

Burke was arraigned Tuesday on Nantucket District Court on charges of cocaine trafficking, possession to distribute ketamine, illegal gun possession, and possession of a large capacity feeding device, records show. He was ordered held pending a detention hearing in Plymouth District Court on Wednesday morning.

Burke’s lawyer had no immediate comment when reached by phone Wednesday. Burke didn’t return a call seeking comment. A spokesperson for Cape and Islands District Attorney Rob Galibois’s office declined to comment Wednesday, citing the pending investigation.

A supplemental police report said the initial call to authorities reported that the woman on the yacht “did not want to be there, was under the influence of narcotics, and possibly [had] overdosed.” Burke led officers to his bedroom, where the woman told police she “did not feel safe,” the report said.

The woman was given medical aid before she was taken to the hospital, officials said.

Burke was a physician first licensed to practice medicine in Colorado in 1981. His license in that state expired in 2021, according to Colorado Board of Medicine records.

About 20 years ago, he founded the Denver-based company Injury Finance, described on its website as “the industry leader in medical funding,” which was “created to serve an uninsured and under-insured population in need of medical treatment.”

The company said Wednesday that Burke has “no affiliation” with it.

According to Marine Traffic, a site that monitors vessel locations across the globe, the Jess Conn remained anchored on Nantucket on Wednesday. The yacht had arrived on Nantucket on Aug. 23 from Newport, according to Marine Traffic.

A Nordhavn yacht, the boat flies a Cayman Islands flag, meaning it’s registered there, and was built in 2021, according to the site.

Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected] .

Retired doc busted with ‘hookers, drugs & guns’ free after posting $200K bail — while yacht still sits in Nantucket harbor

T he retired doctor busted aboard a luxurious yacht allegedly filled with prostitutes, drugs and guns off Nantucket is walking free after posting $200,000 bail, The Post has learned.

Married 69-year-old dad and former spine doc Scott Anthony Burke was sprung loose last week, Nantucket deputies said Sunday, adding that Massachusetts law stipulates bails must be paid in full.

Burke posted bail at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility about a day after his arrest aboard his 82-foot yacht Jess Conn on Tuesday morning, police said.

Local marina workers and fishermen said they have seen people relaxing onboard the doctor’s yacht — which remains anchored in the ritzy harbor — since Burke’s release. It is unclear whether the former doctor is among them or if he is still on the island at all.

“There are people on the boat, but I don’t know who they are,” an angler said Sunday.

“Yesterday, I saw two males. … They were just sitting in the back with hats and glasses on. Just two people sitting in the shadows.” 

On Sunday afternoon, the yacht’s top-deck hot tub appeared to have been recently used, with its cover pulled back and a towel draped over a nearby deck chair.

“Thursday, I saw a female in the back,” the fisherman said.

The worker said he wasn’t sure if one of the men had been Burke.

“He looks like most of the millionaires around here. They look like they’ve been eating in restaurants for the last 30 years. A lot of booze, a lot of salt, a lot of cream,” the fisherman said. 

“They were real low-key before they got busted,” the man added of the boat’s occupants.

Burke was bagged when cops were alerted to a woman requiring “medical assistance” on the yacht after possibly suffering an overdose onboard.

Responding police transported the woman to a nearby hospital — and discovered about 14 grams of ketamine, around 43 grams of cocaine, a loaded 9mm pistol along with a trio of 30-round magazines, and a .380 pistol on the boat.

A bedroom floor was also littered with loose ammunition, according to a police report.

After he was cuffed, Burke allegedly confessed that he owned the guns and told officers where others were stored.

“Scott Burke does not possess a valid [license to carry] or [firearm identification] card,” the poice report said.

Burke was hit with drug and weapons trafficking charges in an arraignment at Plymouth District Court Wednesday. He pleaded not guilty.

Island locals — who say drugs and sex are par-for-the-course for many of the isle’s elite visitors — have been getting a kick out of aspects of the tawdry situation.

“Everyone’s cracking up. We think it’s hilarious,” said a 61-year-old Nantucket native who asked not to be named. “Everybody does that. He got busted, that’s it.”

But Burke’s weapons crossed a line, they said.

“The guns [are] a completely different ballgame,” the local said.

Marina workers said that whoever is on the boat now has not been welcomed on land.

“Someone came in a tender, and they tried to get sandwiches or something from the island,” a worker who asked to remain anonymous said.

“They tried to come to the marina, and we told them to leave.”

A married father of two, Burke ran a spine and rehabilitation clinic out of Colorado before retiring in 2021.

He now lives in the exclusive Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Fla.

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Doctor arrested after police find guns, drugs and prostitutes in raid of yacht at Nantucket Harbor

Scott burke, 69, faces drug trafficking and weapons charges after arrest, article bookmarked.

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A doctor was arrested after police found guns, drugs and prostitutes aboard a 70ft motor yacht anchored at a small island of Massachusetts .

The yacht Jess Conn, which is out of Georgetown in the Cayman Islands, was raided in Nantucket Harbor after a woman was evacuated from it and taken to a waiting ambulance.

The vessel’s owner Scott Burke, 69, was taken into custody after the raid by Nantucket Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Mr Burke, of Key Largo, Florida , faces drug trafficking and weapons charges and is set to be arraigned in Nantucket District Court on 11 September, reported The Nantucket Current.

He is a retired physician who worked in Colorado and founded Denver Spine and Rehab, according to the newspaper.

He is now the CEO of Injury Finance LLC, a company “that offers personal injury victims lien access to our comprehensive network of medical providers.”

Harbormaster Sheila Lucey said that the alarm was raised after a “wellness check” was performed on a woman on Tuesday morning.

The yacht reportedly arrived in Nantucket Harbor on 23 August after a journey from Newport, Rhode Island.

It was featured in PowerYachtBlog.com after it ran aground in Ocean Reef in the Florida Keys in May.

Nantucket Police Department say that Mr Burke was initially charged with two counts of possession of a firearm without a license.

After the search of the yacht, he was charged with additional drugs and firearm offences.

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Kiwi captain James Cutfield reportedly grilled by Italian police after superyacht sinking, divers recover more bodies

• James Cutfield, 51, originally of North Shore, Auckland, captained the sunken superyacht and has been reportedly grilled by Italian prosecutors.
• Divers have recovered the bodies of four more people, allegedly including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch .
• Rescuers continue searching the yacht on the bottom of the sea floor .

The Kiwi who captained the luxury yacht that sunk off the coast of Italy has reportedly been grilled for multiple hours by Italian prosecutors.

New Zealand citizen James Cutfield, 51, captained the Bayesian, the boat that sank off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo during a storm.

According to Italian media outlet Giornale Di Sicilia , Cutfield was questioned for two hours while prosecutors attempted to piece together the super yachts’ final moments.

Prosecutors are expected to interview other survivors as well.

It comes as divers searching the Bayesian have found five bodies and recovered four of them, according to local authorities.

Among those bodies identified are tech mogul Mike Lynch , Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.

A woman’s body had also been found. Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morvillo’s wife Neda and Bloomer’s wife Judy were among those missing.

Salvo Cocina, the director-general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed that five bodies had been found but only four brought to shore. One person remained missing, he said.

Searches had finished for the day and would resume on Thursday, Cocina said.

CNN reporters saw four body bags being moved from rescue boats into ambulances at the port of Porticello, near where the boat sank, though authorities did not provide details about those inside.

Rescuers have spent days trying to reach those remaining inside the boat but have been hampered by the depth of the vessel and debris blocking passageways.

The six had been missing since the 56m yacht sank amid a freak storm off the coast of Sicily on Monday, with 22 people on board. Fifteen had been rescued and one, the boat’s chef, was killed.

Captain’s brother says he was ‘well-respected’

Cutfield’s brother Mark told the Herald his brother was a “very good sailor” and was “very well respected” in the Mediterranean.

He said he was in hospital but was not suffering from injuries “too dramatic”.

“He’s safe, he’s okay.”

Mark said they had received a call from James’ wife Cristina before the news broke so they would not worry about their brother’s life. She had flown from their home in Palma, Mallorca, to be by his side in Italy and has been updating the New Zealand family.

James had been a captain on luxury yachts for eight years and had previously been working on them and involved in building them for the past 30 years in various locations around the Mediterranean.

He said before he worked for Lynch, he had worked for a Turkish billionaire.

Mark said James was a “top sailor” in his youth and raced 470s competitively in his youth.

When the Bayesian went down, James was among the 15 people who were rescued.

New Zealander Ayla Ronald, 36, a senior associate for Clifford Chance in London , and her partner Matthew Fletcher were among the people who were rescued.

Ronald is from Christchurch and studied at the University of Otago.

Rachel Maher is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. She has worked for the Herald since 2022.

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Convicted cancer doctor Farid Fata begs for early release: I'll die if I don't get out

Convicted cancer doctor Farid Fata is seeking compassionate release from prison again, maintaining he has a rare blood disorder that could kill him if he doesn't get out of prison soon, and that he is a changed man who has expressed "genuine remorse" for the harm he caused his patients.

"He has shown remorse to every soul affected by his crimes, as his past is no longer part of him," Fata states in a request that he himself filed with the court.

Fata has been in prison for 11 years since pleading guilty to running a health care fraud scheme that involved injecting healthy patients with chemotherapy and overmedicating others while they were dying — all while raking in more than $17 million from fraudulent billings. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison for crimes the government says harmed more than 500 patients.

The one-time prominent Oakland County doctor has sought compassionate release before, though a federal judge, a prison warden and an appeals court have denied his requests.

So he's trying again, maintaining that he will die if he does not get out, and that he is not a threat to society.

"As Fata himself acknowledged, his crime was heinous," Fata's latest filing states, adding he has since turned his life around in prison, where has helped other inmates earn their GEDs and written business plans for soon-to-be-released inmates who will need help rebuilding their lives outside prison.

"Fata today appears 180% different than Fata 11 years ago," his filing states.

Perhaps most obvious, he's a lot more frail.

According to court documents, 59-year-old Fata was healthy until December 2020, when he became infected with COVID-19 and subsequently developed multiple infections in his skin, prostate, bladder, eyes and gums. A hematology expert concluded he needed Neupogen, a drug that can help reduce infections caused by low white blood cell counts and is commonly prescribed to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

To date, Fata says the prison system will not approve that drug for him, and that a medical director allegedly once told him: "'Where do you think you are: are you at Harvard? I am one doctor for 1,500 patients.'"

Fata, meanwhile, argues he not only needs that drug, but he needs to get out of prison to get the medical attention he isn't getting behind prison walls.

"A court's refusal to reduce Fata's sentence could result in death," the convicted doctor argues in court filings.

Dr. Charles Howard, a prison medical consultant and former medical director of the Miami Federal Detention Center, agrees. In a June letter filed with the court, Howard maintains that Fata is suffering from chronic and life-threatening infections due to a "lack of proper medication," and that he has had an "indefensible delay in care."

“It is evident from Mr. Fata’s provided medical records that his serious recurring infections have not been addressed adequately," Howard writes. "He still lacks being evaluated by an infectious disease specialist. In addition, the lack of concern and failure to properly treat ... constitutes deliberate indifference, which, outside the prison environment, would be malpractice.”

Howard asked the court to release Fata and grant him time-served, or at the very least, sentence him to home-confinement so that he can get the medical attention he needs.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has until Sept. 20 to respond to Fata's request, and has said that it plans to object to letting him out early.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is asking victims and families to write letters to the court before Aug. 26 to weigh in on Fata's request. All written statements must be sent via e-mail to Victim Witness Coordinator, Alex Wyatt, at the U.S. Attorney’s Office: [email protected]. Submissions must be received before 5 p.m. Aug. 26. Those with questions can call (313) 226-9615.

Fata was arrested in August 2013 after a whistleblower alerted authorities that he was billing the government for medically unnecessary cancer and blood treatments. In 2014, Fata admitted to raking in more than $17 million from fraudulent billings and pleaded guilty to 13 counts of health care fraud, two counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks.

Fata, who maintains his lawyer duped him into pleading guilty , also agreed to forfeit $17.6 million and a number of assets in the case.

Contact Tresa Baldas: [email protected] .

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Two doctors and the 'ketamine queen' are charged in the overdose death of actor Matthew Perry

A web of people motivated by greed — two doctors, a live-in-personal assistant, an acquaintance and a drug dealer known as the “ketamine queen” — conspired to provide Matthew Perry with the ketamine that caused his accidental overdose death last year, federal authorities announced Thursday.

The five individuals have all been charged in connection with Perry’s death. As his descent into ketamine addiction deepened last fall, they took advantage of the actor’s vulnerable condition to enrich themselves, authorities said. 

“They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said at a news conference. “But they did it anyways. In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his well being.”

Perry, 54, was found face down in the heated end of a pool at his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28, 2023. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office attributed his death to the acute effects of ketamine, an anesthetic with psychedelic properties.

According to an 18-count superseding indictment, the events leading to Perry’s death began in September when a Santa Monica doctor, Salvador Plasencia, learned that Perry wanted ketamine. Long known as a club drug, it’s increasingly used to treat people with depression and other mental health issues but carries serious medical risks.

Plasencia reached out to another doctor, Mark Chavez, of San Diego, who had owned a ketamine clinic. Soon the two physicians were discussing how much to charge Perry for the drug.

“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia said in a text message to Chavez, according to the indictment. “Lets find out.”

Plasencia went on to provide ketamine to Perry and his assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, 59. Plasencia repeatedly injected Perry with the drug himself and also instructed Iwamasa on how to do it, the indictment says. 

“It was like a bad movie,” Plasencia wrote in a text message to Chavez, the indictment says.

From September until Perry’s death in late October, the doctors provided him with about 20 vials of ketamine at a price of $55,000 in cash, federal prosecutors said. 

In mid-October, Iwamasa sought an additional source of ketamine for his troubled boss, the indictment said. He reached out to an acquaintance of Perry’s, Erik Fleming, who then reached out to a major underground seller known as the "ketamine queen." 

A dual U.S. and U.K. citizen who lived in North Hollywood, Jasveen Sangha had been selling ketamine and other drugs for years, according to federal prosecutors. 

She knew that ketamine could be fatal. In August 2019, a man overdosed on ketamine provided by Sangha, prosecutors said. Afterward, one of the man’s family members sent a text to Sangha. "The ketamine you sold my brother killed him," they wrote. "It's listed as the cause of death."

According to prosecutors, Sangha then typed a question into Google: “Can ketamine be listed as a cause of death.”

She began providing the drugs to Perry through Fleming, and he coordinated the sales with Iwamasa, the indictment says. On Oct. 28, Iwamasa injected Perry with at least three shots of ketamine using syringes provided by Plasencia, according to the indictment.

The actor, best known for playing Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom “Friends,” was found unresponsive in his pool later that day.

“Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday,” Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Millgram said at the Thursday news conference. “And it ended with street dealers who sold him ketamine in unmarked vials.”

Sangha, 41, and Plasencia, 42, were both arrested Thursday in Southern California. They were charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Sangha was also charged with several other drug-related offenses.

Plasencia, who appeared shackled and in dress clothes during a court hearing Thursday, pleaded not guilty. His bond was set at $100,000.

The judge overseeing the case agreed to allow the non-controlled substance part of Placensia’s practice to remain open if he posts a note at his office explaining the charges and seeks releases from patients stating that they understand the allegations against him.

Plasencia's next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 28.

A lawyer for Plasencia, who operated a clinic in a strip mall in Calabasas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The owner of a local business, who asked not to be named for fear of harassment, said he met Plasencia briefly about two months ago after noticing a sign for weight loss medication at the clinic.

Plasencia offered him weight loss drugs without a consultation, the business owner said. The local business owner declined. “I’m glad I didn’t do it,” he said.

On Thursday afternoon, a sign advertising weight loss medication remained outside Palencia’s clinic but the front doors were locked. A handwritten note said the urgent care would be closed for the day.

After Perry’s death, federal agents and detectives searched Sangha's home. They found approximately 79 vials of ketamine, three pounds of orange pills containing methamphetamine, hallucinogenic mushrooms and cocaine.

Sangha appeared in court wearing large round glasses and a bright green baggy Nirvana T-shirt. After she pleaded not guilty, a judge ordered her to be held without bail, saying she was a flight risk.

Sangha was previously arrested in March in a separate federal drug case in which she was accused of being "a large volume drug dealer." She was released from custody in that case after she posted a $100,000 bond, according to court records.

Iwamasa, Perry's 59-year-old assistant, pleaded guilty on Aug. 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing a death. He admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including on the day the actor died, according to prosecutors.

Chavez, 54, the physician based in San Diego, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, prosecutors said. He admitted to selling ketamine to Plasencia, according to prosecutors.

Fleming, 54, the acquaintance who helped Perry procure ketamine, pleaded guilty on Aug. 8 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. He admitted to distributing the ketamine that killed Perry — drugs that he received from Sangha, according to prosecutors.

Perry had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety, but his last session took place more than a week prior to his death. The medical examiner noted that the ketamine in Perry’s system “could not be from that infusion therapy” given its short half-life. 

The levels of ketamine in his body were high — equivalent to the amount used for general anesthesia during surgery, according to the medical examiner. The coroner ultimately ruled his death an accident.

Perry had been open about his lengthy struggles with opioid addiction and alcoholism, which he chronicled in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”

It’s not uncommon for law enforcement to investigate — and in some cases bring charges against — the people who supplied the drugs that caused a high-profile death.

After the death of Michael Jackson in 2009, his private physician, Dr. Conrad Murray , was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for providing the singer with a fatal dose of powerful drugs. More recently, federal prosecutors in New York brought charges against four men who supplied actor Michael K. Williams with the fentanyl-laced heroin that killed him in 2021.

The family of “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison, who is Perry’s stepfather, said in a statement that they welcomed the news of the law enforcement action.

“We were and still are heartbroken by Matthew’s death, but it has helped to know law enforcement has taken his case very seriously,” the family said. “We look forward to justice taking its course.”

Andrew Blankstein is an investigative reporter for NBC News. He covers the Western U.S., specializing in crime, courts and homeland security. 

Eric Leonard is an investigative reporter and joins NBC4 with more than 20 years of experience in the news business.

Rich Schapiro is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

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Breaking news, party yacht doc scott burke, who was busted with drugs, guns and ‘prostitutes,’ has terminal cancer.

The retired surgeon whose party yacht was busted in Nantucket Harbor last week with guns, drugs and alleged prostitutes aboard has stage 4 terminal cancer and is not expected to live much longer, his attorney revealed.

Scott Burke, 69, was described as a good citizen and a humanitarian who is living out his last days with late-stage cancer by defense attorney Henry Brennan.

The lawyer spoke last Thursday during a pretrial hearing, where he successfully argued against jailing his client.

“To have this man potentially spend the rest of his life waiting for a case in jail, to me, would be very, very tragic,” Brennan told Nantucket District Judge James Sullivan, according to the Nantucket Current .

Although Brennan declined to say what type of cancer Burke has “out of respect,” a captain working in the harbor told The Post he previously gave a ride to two people delivering “cancer medication” to Burke’s 80-foot vessel, the Jess Conn, the day after the doctor was arrested last Tuesday.

“I took out somebody who claimed to be a friend of the owner. He claimed to be bringing somebody — and I now know it’s the owner — his cancer medication to him,” said the captain, who asked to remain anonymous.

The captain also noted the people he gave a ride to then appeared to return with “more stuff than they went out with.”

Brennan said Burke, a Florida resident, had brought his vessell to Nantucket harbor and held a party with more than a dozen guests after which he was waiting for the ship’s captain to return from a wedding in order to depart when the trouble happened.

“The party was over and people went back their own ways. [Burke] was waiting for the captain to return. The young woman, who was actually a friend of the captain and on staff, asked to stay a few extra days.”

Her clarified to The Post monday that Burke is planning on heading back to Florida as soon as he can, saying: “He has a large boat and there’s a process for moving it, including obtaining a captain and a crew. It is his intention to return to Florida to be with his family.” 

Along with revealing Burke’s medical condition, Brennan told the court the surgeon and father of two was among those who volunteered in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquakes and that he completed more than 110 surgeries there.

The lawyer also claimed Burke has given away the vast majority of his wealth to colleges and scholarships, all while asking for nothing in return.

Given his terminal diagnosis, charity work and lack of a criminal record, Brennan pushed for Burke’s release on bail, which the judge agreed to, setting his bond at $200,000.

However, the judge said he had trouble reconciling the character painted by Brennan and the crimes Burke is charged with.

Sullivan said: “The amount of cocaine is where the court has a tough time justifying or connecting the two versions of Mr. Burke.

“Obviously, he has a substantial history in terms of his employment and in terms of the aid that he’s rendered to numerous people in his career as a physician. I’m then somewhat puzzled how we get from there to a boat in Nantucket Harbor with cocaine in it.”

Burke has since posted bail at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility, walking free over the weekend. His vessel, which is also said to be his primary residence, remained in the Nantucket Harbor on Monday morning.

At least three men were spotted aboard the Jess Conn, who waved at Post reporters, but remained silent.

Police raided Burke’s ship last week after a they received a call that a woman was overdosing on drugs and wanted to be taken off the boat.

Responding officers found several guns onboard — along with 43 grams of cocaine and 14 grams of ketamine, according to police reports. The Nantucket Current also reported a number of women who were on the boat were prostitutes.

Brennan pushed back against those claims, noting no charges related to prostiution had been brought in the case.

“There’s not even a hint, not even a mention … of prostitution or sex trafficking,” Brennan said, adding: “It’s an abuse of his reputation that can never get taken back.”

Residents in the area also told the post a fight erupted between two women right before authorities got to the vessel.

Another boat captain who asked to remain anonymous told The Post he also took a passenger he described as “25, 30 years old. Thin, with dark hair,” to the Jess Conn last Wednesday afternoon, the day after the arrests. She said she wanted to get her stuff off the boat.

“I thought she was a deckhand on the boat is what I assumed,” the second boat captain said, adding “she needed to get her stuff off the boat but the Coast Guard said no one could go on [board].”

“It’s kind of shocking to know that kind of s—t went down,” he added of the alleged crimes that have rocked the small Nantucket community.

Burke faces drug and weapons trafficking charges and was arraigned at Plymouth District Court. He has pleaded not guilty.

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Massive drone attacks exchanged between Moscow, Kyiv: Officials

LONDON -- In one of the largest exchanges of drone attacks since the Russia-Ukraine war began, dozens were shot down in Russia and Ukraine in overnight assaults, officials in both countries said.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said Wednesday they shot down more than 50 Ukrainian long-range drones over various regions, including nearly a dozen around Moscow.

The drones over Moscow were shot down Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, local time, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.

Unverified videos published online showed explosions in the sky over Russia. Sobyanin said some of the drones were destroyed in the region surrounding Moscow, brought down by the city's layered air defense.

Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented on the attack in Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces shot down 50 Shahed drones and subdued 16 others in a prolonged attack -- the longest drone assault since the start of the full-scale -- officials in Ukraine said.

Ten drones were shot down around Kyiv, according to Maj. Gen. Anatoliy Barhylevych, the commander of Ukraine's armed forces. The drone assault lasted for 16 hours, from 10 p.m. Tuesday till 2 p.m. Wednesday local time, he said.

Russian authorities have not yet commented on the attack in Ukraine.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv warned in an alert Wednesday to American citizens in Ukraine that "during the next several days and through the weekend there is an increased risk of both nighttime and daytime Russian drone and missile attacks."

The alert said the threat was tied to Ukraine's upcoming Independence Day and did not suggest it was connected to any Ukrainian military activities inside Russian territory .

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