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Home / World

Superhero Phoenix Jones arrested for supplying drugs

NZ Herald
29 Jan, 2020 09:32 PM2 mins to read

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Phoenix Jones speaks to reporters in 2011. Photo / AP

Phoenix Jones speaks to reporters in 2011. Photo / AP

A US man who made a name for himself as a crime-fighting superhero has fallen foul of the law himself after being arrested for selling drugs.

Benjamin John Fodor, 31, better known as Phoenix Jones, was arrested in Seattle after an undercover investigation found that he was selling MDMA.

He has also been charged, alongside his 26-year-old girlfriend Andrea Berendsen, for trying to sell cocaine.

Court documents revealed by Seattle's KOMO news show that the caped crusader was brought down after selling MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, to an undercover narcotics detective on November 21 last year.

READ MORE:
• MDMA pills that contain up to three doses in a single pill circulating this summer
• Haunting texts reveal how young woman was scared to take MDMA which killed her at a Sydney music festival
• Warning over mega-dose Ecstasy pills flooding into New Zealand
• Sudden New Year's death in Hamilton suspected to be drug-related: reports

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After completing the deal, police approached Fodor to make another buy and arrested him and Berendsen when they arrived carrying the drugs.

Police found seven bundles of cocaine weighing about 4g, several drug bags and an unknown white powder substance weighing approximately 31.7g.

Ben Fodor AKA Phoenix Jones attracted plenty of media attention. Photo / AP
Ben Fodor AKA Phoenix Jones attracted plenty of media attention. Photo / AP

The arrest is a huge fall from grace for the crime fighter, who claims he launched his Phoenix Jones alter-ego a decade ago after seeing friends and family become victims of crime.

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"Have you ever seen something that you thought was wrong or not fair?" Fodor said in 2013. "That you wanted to change? And then you just thought about it for days or weeks? I don't stand by and watch things happen that are wrong. When I see it I fix it. Does that make me crazy?"

He was part of a group of superheroes that patrolled Seattle, known as the Rain City Superheroes.

The group, which also counted Green Reaper, Gemini, No Name and Catastrophe among its members would intervene in streetfights and feed the homeless.

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