GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Georgia man was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to a fatal Fentanyl-laced drug overdose case.
Gwinnett County officials say 28-year-old Dacula man Benjamin Hosler pled guilty to multiple charges including felony murder, trafficking illegal drugs, and violation of Georgia’s Controlled Substance Act.
Hosler, who called his business “Fentanyl Enterprises, ”also faces three counts of illegal use of a communication facility in connection with the September 2021 death of 24-year-old Dylan Smith.
Smith’s mother called Gwinnett County Police when she found him dead in his bedroom with a depressed syringe in his hand.
Police found 0.3 grams of a light-brown chunky substance in a distinctive wrapping on his nightstand that tested positive for Fentanyl.
Investigators reviewed Smith’s phone and found a chain of text messages between him and Hosler from the day before Smith was found dead.
Smith asked Hosler for heroin and Xanax and both substances were found to be laced with Fentanyl.
Between October and December 2021, undercover officers contacted Hosler and bought heroin. Investigators say the drug was delivered in the same distinctive wrapping as what was found in Smith’s room, and each time the drugs tested positive for Fentanyl.
Investigators also found evidence that confirmed Hosler’s knowledge of sales and the overdose issues. He was arrested in 2022.
“We constantly remind our community that it only takes one instance of Fentanyl use to end in tragedy,” District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said. “This defendant laced Fentanyl in the illegal drugs that he sold to the victim, and it turned out to be deadly.”
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