Richfield man charged with murder for alleged role in fentanyl overdose death

A Richfield man accused of selling the fentanyl pills that resulted in an overdose death this September has been charged with murder, according to a criminal complaint.

Nick Narine Ganpat, 21, is charged with third-degree murder in connection with the Sept. 14 overdose death of a 35-year-old man identified only by his initials, D.S., court documents show.

The night before he died, D.S. urged his girlfriend to contact Ganpat to buy "Perc 30" pills, a counterfeit version of Percocet. The girlfriend, identified as R.V., contacted Ganpat via the encrypted messaging app Telegram and transferred $60 via CashApp. A search warrant later revealed the CashApp account used to receive the funds was registered to Nick Ganpat at his address on the 7300 block of Penn Avenue South.

The couple met the dealer at an apartment parking lot at West 74th Street and Penn Avenue South in Richfield, where he handed them three Perc 30 pills. R.V. said Ganpat usually walked to the parking lot from a house down the street, the complaint states.

D.S. and R.V. later returned to the Key Inn in Roseville to crush up and smoke the Perc 30s. The girlfriend said the victim had taken several hits, and that he was unresponsive when she woke up, the complaint states. She tried administering a dose of Narcan to revive him and called 911, but he was pronounced dead in the hotel room.

After interviewing R.V. about how they got the pills, police obtained a search warrant for Ganpat’s home, where they found a safe containing more than $700 in cash and a bag of Perc 30 pills. Ganpat told police that he sold marijuana, but denied selling the Perc 30s, saying, "I just buy large amounts for myself" and claiming he took up to 30 a day.

Ganpat also denied knowing D.S. When police showed him a photo of the victim, he said, "I don’t know that guy from a crumb of life."

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner determined D.S. died from mixed drug toxicity, and a toxicology test found alcohol, a metabolite of cocaine and fentanyl in his system.

A toxicology report issued on Dec. 17 by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension revealed the pills found at Ganpat’s home contained fentanyl and 4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperidine, or ANPP.

A Ramsey County judge issued a warrant for Ganpat’s arrest Tuesday, and jail records indicate he has not been taken into custody.

Name-brand Percocet contains the opioid oxycodone and acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. Counterfeit Perc 30s, also called "M’s" because of the letter stamped on the pills, are designed to approximate Percocet but can contain an unpredictable mix of chemicals — including fentanyl, a Schedule II controlled substance that is lethal even in minuscule doses.