Philip Seymour Hoffman scored heroin for months from a jazz musician arrested with three other alleged dealers in a raid on a lower Manhattan drug pad, law-enforcement sources said Wednesday.
The Oscar-winning actor’s phone number appeared on at least three different cellphones seized from the Mott Street building where cops on Tuesday night busted alleged dealer Robert Vineberg, 57, the sources said.
The tip that led to the raid came from a known heroin user, who proved his credibility to investigators because he, too, had Hoffman’s cellphone number.
Cops also arrested Thomas Kushman, 48, Max Rosenblum, 22, and Juliana Luchkiw, 22.
Vineberg and Kushman were charged with felony criminal possession of a controlled substance, sources said.
But prosecutors dropped the charges against Kushman, who later said he was just a friend in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rosenblum and Luchkiw were hit with misdemeanor drug charges.
At his arraignment Wednesday night, Vineberg’s lawyer said his client had nothing to do with Hoffman’s death.
“I hope the district attorney does not use Mr. Vineberg as a scapegoat for this unfortunate incident,” said the attorney, Edward Kratt.
Luchkiw and Rosenblum were both held without bail despite the fact that only two bags of cocaine were found in Luchkiw’s Mott Street apartment.
“Why is this happening?” a shocked Luchkiw said in the courtroom. “I can’t stay here another night.”
Vineberg is an entertainment-industry-connected musician who has worked with Madonna, Wyclef Jean and tragic pop singer Amy Winehouse.
His stepdaughter, Christina Soto, admitted her dad is a drug pusher who knew Hoffman — but insisted he didn’t sell the actor the drugs that killed him.
“My father knew Philip Seymour Hoffman for a few months,” said Soto, 33, outside the Mott Street building.
Asked whether her father sold to the actor, she said, “I’d rather not say. It’s my father, so I can’t.”
The seized bags of heroin, she said, did not have the “Ace of Spades” or “Ace of Hearts” tags cops found on more than 70 bags in Hoffman’s apartment, where he was discovered dead Sunday with a needle in his left forearm.
But dealers change labels from week to week to stay ahead of cops, sources said, and investigators have not ruled out that Hoffman’s last supply came from the Mott Street location.
Hoffman died of an apparent overdose, although the autopsy results were inconclusive pending toxicology tests.
Soto said her stepfather got to know Hoffman because Vineberg contributed music for movies and commercials. The two men met sometime last fall, and Hoffman came to Vineberg’s apartment for espresso, Soto claimed.
“My father thought of him very highly. He was a great actor and a wonderful man,” she said.
Soto claimed that her stepdad hadn’t seen Hoffman since November.
“He said, ‘If he would have come to me, I would have told him to slow down, and if you’re going to do something, make sure you have someone with you.’ ”
Soto said Vineberg “knows a lot of famous people. He’s lived here since the ’70s.”
She said her dad became a drug dealer because he couldn’t find other work.
“He’s a genius when it comes to music, but he’s 57. Getting a job isn’t easy when you’re a musician at 57,” she said.
He got into selling because “when you’re a jazz musician, you know people who do that.”
“He’s just a good jazz musician trying to pay his rent,” the daughter contended.
“This was his unfortunate way of trying to keep up.”
She insisted that Vineberg’s apartment “was not a drug den.”
“He was not the main guy. He wasn’t the one doing the cutting and the bagging. He was just trying to make ends meet,” she insisted.
Additional reporting by Jeane MacIntosh and Rebecca Rosenberg