Federal prosecutors Thursday announced the indictment of a local homeless man who’s accused of selling the “protonitazene” responsible for the nation’s first documented criminal death from the drug, according to a Department of Justice filing obtained by The Signal.  In an eight-page memo requesting detention for Benjamin Collins, narcotics detectives allege the 21-year-old had a record dating back to high school.  The indictment accuses Collins of being responsible for the overdose death of a 22-year-old Stevenson Ranch resident.  The suspect had more than a dozen arrests for selling narcotics, including several as a juvenile and several more after he learned the drugs he sold killed someone, and was homeless and living at Bridge to Home at the time of his arrest, according to law enforcement officials.   The investigative efforts used by law enforcement officials are similar to ones used to investigate fentanyl deaths, which became a major problem for the Santa Clarita Valley in 2022. “Protonitazene is quickly emerging as a fentanyl replacement and it is three times more fatal,” according to federal officials.  An expert toxicologist was called in to confirm what law enforcement officials consider the “but for” cause of death, i.e. the direct factor that led to the death, due to the nature of the case.   “It is a ‘nitazene,’ a class of opioid developed in the 1950s as a substitute for morphine that was so powerful that the FDA refused to approve its use,” according to federal officials, explaining the new narcotic.  “Specifically, he opined ‘beyond any reasonable degree of medical probability that the but for cause of death was acute protonitazene toxicity,’” according to the filing. “He explained that although both drugs were in the decedent’s system, the Xanax alone would not have killed him, whereas the opioid alone would have.”  Local death  Around 1 p.m. April 19, a mother pulled up to her Stevenson Ranch home and saw her son’s car parked outside.   She found her 22-year-old son not breathing inside the vehicle.  A Drug Enforcement Administration toxicology expert later confirmed the Medical Examiner’s Office report: it was the protonitazene that killed Bryce Jacquet.   Detectives later found digital records of evidence indicating Collins and Jacquet were planning an even larger deal for later, according to court records.   “A review of the decedent’s Instagram messages revealed that defendant Collins — using the Instagram username ‘BenzThaKidd,’ sold the decedent ‘10 mg Pink K-56 pills’ (i.e. Oxycodone) just hours before his death,” according to the federal detention memo. “Collins gave the decedent a deal of five pills for $20 each.”  Collins was arrested one month after the death with “distribution quantities” of other drugs, according to officials.   In a sworn declaration filed Wednesday, a detective stated despite learning he sold the drugs that killed Jacquet, “Collins continues to deal drugs openly and prolifically and advertises his drug dealing services on Instagram live videos.”  Detectives cited multiple posts they linked to Collins where he was advertising his deliveries on social media in the months following Jacquet’s death.  During an arrest following Jacquet’s death, detectives said Collins waived his rights and admitted to having no job and selling the drugs to make money. Collins also admitted to knowing about the death about a month after it happened, according to officials.  During that arrest, detectives allege, Collins lied about having cocaine on him for personal use, despite investigators finding cellphone evidence he was on his way to a drug deal, and then lied to a jailer about having 62 grams of fentanyl on his underwear while he was being arrested, according to the DOJ.   The defendant and the decedent shared multiple texts prior to their fateful transaction on April 19 as well, according to statements from federal prosecutors read in open court.  Jacquet’s cellphone data shows him returning to his neighborhood around 2:20 a.m., about an hour after he left his home to make the drug deal.  Detectives said they couldn’t find any other evidence that Jacquet had any other dealings for narcotics in the time he was gone.   Throughout Jacquet’s final drive to meet Collins, the two were messaging about drugs, and specifically, Collins planned to sell the deceased a future supply of 50-100 pills, according to investigators.  Collins told Jacquet, according to DOJ officials: “I sell bulk everything.”   DOJ officials said the charge they are seeking for Collins, distribution of a narcotic resulting in death, carries a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison.  Collins was arrested Monday and pleaded not guilty to the charge at his arraignment on Wednesday.  He’s being held without bail and due back in court Jan. 14.  The post SCV man indicted in 1st-ever fatality of new opioid   appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.