Sean Robert McLaughlin Charged in American Junkie Overdose Case

The former security manager at the American Junkie nightclub in Newport Beach has been charged with supplying drugs to patrons, causing multiple overdoses and one overdose death, according to authorities.

Sean Robert McLaughlin, 43, of Aliso Viejo, is also accused of holding a woman against her will in his American Junkie office and supplying her with ecstasy—a month before the four men he’d allegedly plied with cocaine laced with fentanyl were hospitalized.

Newport Beach Fire Department paramedics responded to a medical distress call at the nightspot at 2406 Newport Blvd. after 1 a.m. in November 2016, when they sent the club patrons to local hospitals for treatment. Ahmed Said, 25, of Santa Ana, died at 7:06 that same morning at Huntington Beach Hospital.

After McLaughlin was booked into the Newport Beach Police Department jail that night for suspected involuntary manslaughter, further investigation uncovered the September 2016 incident with the woman. There is no mention of manslaughter in the Orange County District Attorney’s office announcement about the charges that were filed against McLaughlin last Friday, Dec. 8.

They are: four felony counts of sale/transportation of a controlled substance, a single felony count of sale/transportation of ecstasy, a misdemeanor count of false imprisonment and four sentencing enhancements for inflicting great bodily injury.

A conviction could send him to state prison for 16 years. At press time he was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail while awaiting arraignment.

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