A 30-year-old suspected drug dealer out of San Francisco was charged Friday with the fentanyl overdose death of a Denver college student.
Jamal Gamal, 30, was arrested in San Francisco on Aug. 28 and charged Friday with distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said in a news conference.
“The charges against Mr. Gamal should send the message that people who are accused of selling this poison in Denver will be prosecuted by my office to the fullest extent of the law,” McCann said.
Gamal allegedly sold fentanyl and bromazolam pills — a drug Denver investigators have said “illicit drug dealers” are using in place Xanax/Alprazolam and marketing as real prescription pills — over the internet to then-28-year-old Collin Walker of Tyler, Texas, according to an arrest affidavit.
Walker was attending college in Denver when he died from a fentanyl overdose on Nov. 19, 2023.
“I never thought I’d be at a press conference talking about the death of my son and never did I think I’d be talking about the death of my son due to fentanyl,” Walker’s mother, Ginger, said Friday. “Like everybody, I’ve heard about the fentanyl crisis on TV, watched it on the news … but I didn’t think that it would ever touch me or my family.”
Gamal sold fentanyl to Walker between February 2023 and November 2023, according to his arrest affidavit. Investigators said a batch of fentanyl pills Walker received on Nov. 13, 2023 caused his death.
In 2023, there were nearly 400 fentanyl-caused deaths in Denver, Denver Chief of Police Ron Thomas said in Friday’s news conference.
“Our hearts will never heal after the loss of our son. We’re never going to be whole and we’re not going to be ok,” Walker’s mother said. “But we’re going to spend every day trying to track down people like this and make Jamal Gamal responsible for Collin’s death.”
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This is the sixth time someone has been charged with distribution of fentanyl resulting in death in Denver since the law was enacted in 2022, McCann said. Five of the cases are still open and one person pled guilty.
“The difficulty is not only in identifying the dealers — obviously they do their best to remain in secret — but also being able to track down that specific, lethal dose to an individual,” Thomas said. “That’s what makes these cases very difficult.”
The rise in drugs being sold online and delivered through the mail only adds to the challenge, Thomas said.
Gamal is expected to arrive in Denver on Sept. 16, police said.
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